Laid Off
by Hatsu Yukiya
Summary: The nations recieve an unexpected vacation and America suggests his brilliant idea to pass the time. "You know that 'school' thing that people do? I was thinking it would be fun to try it."
1. Chapter 1

America strode purposefully into the meeting room, his laptop under one arm and a grim expression taking the place of his usual arrogant grin. As he entered, he noticed most of the rest of the world was already there, muttering darkly. He knew why, of course; there wasn't a lot the United States of America didn't know, considering his connections to all the other nations.

That, and he had been told directly of the matter, but America didn't count that.

As soon as he walked in, most of the attention in the room turned to him. Normally America would relish in that, but at the moment he wanted to duck under a table or disappear like that one guy nobody's name knew always did. He swallowed the lump in his throat and took his seat at the massive round table, ignoring all the jibes thrown in his direction.

"America, this is all you and your bloody president's fault!"

"This is the worst thing to ever happen!"

"What are we supposed to do now?"

America took and released a deep breath, running a hand through his hair. "Look, I'm not thrilled about it either! Boss didn't pass this by me! I didn't even know this kind of thing was possible!" He broke off, and took a moment to open his laptop and pull up the email he had bookmarked. Nearly all the other nations did this as well; they all had to take another good, solid look at the disbelieving news they had received that morning. The news that had prompted this emergency meeting in the first place, the reason they were all gathered.

There was a heavy silence as everyone reread the mass email, looking more and more displeased with each line that was read.

England, after scanning through it quickly, began to read aloud.

"_Dear national representations of the world,_

_An interesting idea was mentioned at the last world summit that grew the more it was discussed, and so it is a pleasure to announce that we, your world leaders, are offering six months paid vacation. You will not be required to come in to work during that time and may spend that time pursuing whatever activities you see fit._

_Whether you want to or not, this vacation of sorts is non-negotiable and if any of you attempt to come into work you will be forcibly removed from the premises._

_Sincerely,_

_The President of the United States of America, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland…"_

England trailed off, not feeling the need to recite the many, many names and titles—over two hundred of them—that had signed the document. They all got the idea.

"So there it is," he sighed. "None of us are supposed to go into work."

"Why, though?" Vietnam asked, her face as confused as everyone else's. "Did we complain about working to much?"

Everyone was quiet for a moment. That was…probably true. All the nations complained every morning as they went in to complete work for their bosses. That was what they did.

But for the life of them, nobody knew what to do with their lives if they didn't do that work. Sure, they had other pastimes, but over the centuries the world had grown accustomed to going in early every morning, weekend, and more than often holidays to help the leaders run their country.

"And to think," England said dryly, "this started because America's president was bored at a summit and thought it would be just dandy to do something "nice" and here we all are panicking."

"Six months is a long time," Hungary huffed. "I remember when we all had the freedom to do what we wanted, but that ended so many years ago."

"Can they even do that?" Finland asked, looking apprehensive. "Just lay us off? It's not like we can ever stop doing what we were born to do."

"We're not _fired_, per say," Spain answered, looking thoughtful, "just kicked out for six months. And when you think about how long we live, it's not such a bad deal, si?"

South Korea leaned over his laptop. "_Six months paid vacation_," he read. "We were never getting paid in the first place, da ze!" He flopped backwards and rolled his eyes.

Fiddling with the end of his ponytail, China stared into space and said in an offhand manner, "Think about how amazing it is, aru. Mr. America's President had this random idea that seems crazy to all of us and managed to convince the leaders of the entire world to go along with it, because he was bored in a summit. I'd feel bad if we undermined his efforts."

America had been more or less silent for the past few minutes, but raised his voice to say, "But everything's gonna be so boring! I mean, work is boring for sure, but it's something to do and we're all used to doing it and all that, so what are we supposed to do?!"

"We'll just have to figure that out for ourselves," Germany sighed, rubbing his eyes. This was going to be a hard six months for the workaholics. Could their bosses even function by themselves without the nations there to help out? Okay, maybe that was putting a little less faith in the leaders of the world than was altogether necessary, but still! In times where they hadn't had an office to drudge in every day, the nations had wars to fight. They were always, _always_ doing things for the landmass of the countries they represented, always doing things for their people. Having all that taken away, even for six months, was unfathomable.

Though they all knew in their heart of hearts that they were overreacting just a little.

The disbelieving arguments eventually settled into discussions over who would do what in their spare time, and it was the rare occasion of the nations actually banding together to help each other out. Even if it was just to defeat boredom. A few realized and vocalized, what the hell had happened to them? They had complained in the past over not being able to do what they wanted, and now they were complaining over having all the time they wanted? That was messed up.

For the second time, America emerged from one of his rare bouts of deep thinking. There was a spark in his eyes that others had learned to be wary of over the years, but none of them particularly cared at the moment.

"Guys," he said, speaking over the muted conversations. "Guys, I have an idea."

England facepalmed. This probably was going to end in something bizarre. And yet…"Get it out."

America smiled broadly, his confidence taking over. "You know that _school _thing that people do? I was thinking it would be fun to try it."

The other nations silenced at this, pondering.

"You know…"

"Maybe…"

"It would be temporary."

"But there are all these problems. How do we keep our identities secret?"

"And there's the fact that a lot of us look too old for school."

America's smile widened. They were finally talking one of his ideas over. Convincing some others would be a piece of cake. If he was gonna do that "school thing," then he didn't want to be the only one. The more the merrier.

**A/N:**

**Guess who needs to stop biting off more than she can chew? Me. Thus, this will be a sort of Story-le Hatsu-only-updates-when-she-feels-like-it. I have a lot—a LOT— of other things to write too, this is just a sort of boredom-reliever.**

**Anyway. For all you lovelies who may want to review, I want YOU ALL to suggest/vote on who you want to see going to school~**


	2. Chapter 2

The more they discussed it, the more interested the nations became with America's idea. Not all of them wanted to do it, but it would be fun to for them to watch from the sidelines. None of them had ever actually gone to school, with the exception of England who had decided to attend and graduate from Oxford in the mid 1950's. Nobody counted that for some reason.

America had passed around a sign-up sheet for everyone who wanted to go, and got a fairly decent result. Some were being forced into it by others, some were only going to keep an eye on others, and then there were the ones who were truly excited about it. When the list made its way around the meeting table, he raised it up to read it aloud.

"Okay, so this is everyone?"

He got a worldwide agreement.

"Right. Me, Canada, England—"

"I'm only going to make sure you don't do something idiotic," the Brit interjected.

"Prussia, Hungary—"

"I'm gonna rock this school thing!"

"China, South Korea—"

"You forced me into this, aru! I don't want to!"

"Yay! Aniki's coming!"

"North Italy, Japan…" America looked up at those names. "Huh? No Germany?"

The German looked annoyed. "I would go, because Italy and my brother are and not many can keep a handle on them. But I imagined I would look too old, so..."

"I've been enlisted," Japan supplied bluntly.

America shrugged. "Whatever. Where were we? Oh yeah. Spain, South Italy—"

"I told you I don't want to, dammit!"

"Romano, come on, it'll be fun!"

Ignoring the bickering, America continued down the list rapidly, not wanting to get interrupted. "Finland, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Latvia, Hong Kong, Seychelles, and Vietnam." He took a deep breath. "That's a lot." He turned to France and Russia. "I figured you guys would want to."

France pouted, sending England a dirty look. "I would like to, mon ami. However, Angelterre here said in no uncertain terms I was not to be allowed around female high schoolers."

Seychelles snickered. "Makes sense to me," she said, flipping one of her dark pigtails over her shoulder. She looked to Hungary, Vietnam, and Liechtenstein. "So we're the only girls?"

"I suppose so," Hungary shrugged. "I guess we'll have to stick together then."

"I'm only going because Liechtenstein wanted to," Switzerland said sharply.

"Thank you, but you don't have to," the small blond girl said, but her brother shook his head.

"I know I can't bring guns but I'll just have to work around that."

The Nordics looked at each other. Finland had showed interest and put his name down, while Denmark was one of the most eager to try this _high school_ and decided to drag Norway and Iceland along with him. Sweden muttered to the Finn that he was too old and abstained.

"So, America?" Finland called over, getting the younger nation's attention, "why high school? Why not college or something? That way more of us could participate."

The American grinned. "Glad you asked, Finny! It's because high school is more of a challenge, and from what I've heard, more fun. That's why."

"You make it sound like some kind of game, aru," China said, frowning.

Reclining back, Korea said, "Why can't we make it a game? It would be fun!"

The nations looked around at each other with interest.

"What kind of game?" Denmark asked, looking excited. "Maybe we could make rules like no letting your identity slip or something."

"That rule's a given, though," Hungary pointed out. "There's no way we could tell anyone who and what we are. The set rules should be no identity slips and no getting too close to anybody."

"Those are rules we follow all the time," Korea said, looking put out. "It doesn't make for a fun game at all. Or any kind of game. It's just life, da ze."

"I know!" Everyone looked to America. "How about whoever has the best grades, most friends, and is all in all the most successful wins?"

"So it's a popularity contest?" Japan asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Sure!"

"Sounds good to me," Prussia smirked, leaning back in his chair. "I'm totally going to win. The rest of you losers can't match up to how awesome I am."

"I don't want to do this," Iceland said dryly.

He was ignored as America pulled out another sheet of paper. "Guys, we need to decide what school we're going to, our grades, and names. So fire away. I vote it should be in my country since it was my idea."

Nobody felt like arguing with him, and they all gave him their preferred names, ages, and grades. America needed to explain the class and grading systems to most of them, but in the end they all understood. He smiled victoriously. "Great, dudes! I'll get us signed up and all that. At the biggest school in my country, too, that way it doesn't look all weird that…" He counted, "Twenty-one new people are transferring all of a sudden."

"Sounds alright to me," Vietnam told him, and the rest agreed. They all left the meeting room that day actually feeling excited about it.

This would be fun.

**A/N: **

**I got eight reviews on the first chapter in a single day ._.**

**I didn't know I could do that.**

**If this keeps up, then I'll be updating a lot more than I originally said I would, just because you folks are so beautiful and motivating.**

**Right, I took your suggestions to heart (and added some I felt like adding) and here's who all is going to le high school:**

**America, Canada, England, China, Japan, Italy, Romano, Spain, Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Prussia (can't believe nobody voted for him, honestly) Hungary, Latvia, South Korea, Seychelles, Vietnam, and Hong Kong. **

**That is a freaking lot. Because there's so many, I'll give them one chapter or two chapters each to themselves because I don't want this dragging on foreeeever like a lot of my other stories do. I also left out a few, like Germany, Russia, and France, because I felt like they would be too old-looking and/or just not want to. Besides, if Russia went, Belarus would also have to and I just can't handle her in this one, no matter how much I love her.**

** Give me suggestions as to what should happen in the nations' individual chapters~ Though I do have Canada pretty much figured out, hehe. But I will seriously consider anything you guys suggest! You just need to make yourself known!**

**Long A/N is long. Thank you for reading and please review!**


	3. Chapter 3

The school the nations were planning to attend had, conveniently, a program that was used to enrolling large influxes of transfer students and so wouldn't bat an eye at twenty-one new "students" from all corners of the globe. When the nations heard that, they all had to give America credit for doing his research and picking a place they would be mostly safe. Quite a few had their doubts about leaving the project in the hands of the incompetent America, but in the end he pulled through. At the moment, they all stood in front of the huge, multi-complex high school in a group, waiting until it was time to go inside. Switzerland was in front of them all, relaying the rules to them as quietly as he could.

"Remember, our identities cannot slip," he said sharply, glaring at America, Korea, Prussia, and the like. He didn't feel the need to remind certain others, as he knew who knew better. It was the hyperactive ones that needed watching. The Swiss turned to England, "No magic." England spluttered, he moved on to Hungary and Prussia. "No fighting." Turning to Korea, he said, "No groping." Ignoring his disappointed look, Switzerland eyed Denmark, "No drinking." Finally, he finished with Hong Kong. "No explosives." The teenager rolled his eyes, but otherwise didn't say anything. "One more thing." The group looked up at the darker tone Switzerland's voice took on. "While we're here, absolutely no referring to each other by our real names. I know it's difficult memorizing the alternate ones, but we have to do it if we want to be safe here."

They all nodded silently. Switzerland sighed and wished he had a little help here. It wasn't fun being the only truly responsible nation on the premises, though maybe it wouldn't be so bad. He'd probably get some use out of England, China, and Vietnam.

China did speak up, to everyone's surprise. He was the one least happy about being dragged into this. "We can't use the international language at all, either. We need to all speak English, aru." Half of them grimaced. A good portion of the world wasn't too skilled when it came to that.

"So can we go in yet?" Korea asked, bouncing on his heels. Seychelles and America joined in on his excitement.

Switzerland nodded. "Yes, but pretend we're not all that familiar with each other."

With a cheer, the more enthusiastic nations bounded towards the door, followed by the ones that didn't care as much. They all stood together in the main foyer, taking in the appearance of the inside, unimpressed.

Norway wrinkled his nose. "This place…it smells."

"Worse than your cooking," America teased, elbowing England in the ribs. The Brit attacked a handful of his hair in retaliation.

"I don't think we should fight," Finland said nervously, and Latvia nodded in agreement. The normally trembling Baltic wasn't shaking hard like he usually did, but he looked as apprehensive as Finland sounded.

"Is there an office somewhere around here?" Hungary asked, looking around. America straightened up, smoothed down his hair, and nodded.

"Yep. It's just down the hall here." He led them in the direction of the office, the other nations looking around curiously. They had never been in an American school before, and were so far having mixed emotions. The whole place looked fairly boring. It was still early morning, so the other students hadn't arrived; the administration asked the transfers to come in early to get a head start.

They arrived at the office, and the woman sitting at the desk looked up in surprise. "Oh! You're here!" She stood hastily, knocking into the wood of her desk and scattering papers onto the floor. She scooped them into her arms and bustled over to the large group. "You're all on time, that's amazing. It's like you all came together."

A couple nations exchanged smirks. This was too easy.

"Right," the woman said, straightening her wire-rimmed glasses. "I'm Amelia Butler; I'm the main secretary at this school. I'm just going to show you around, where all your classes are and things like that."

Amelia rifled through her stack of paper. "These are your schedules. I'm going to call your names and you just come forward and grab them, okay?"

Korea and Hong Kong looked at each other and rolled their eyes. This weird lady probably didn't think any of them could understand that well. Looking around, they saw a few others had their eyebrows raised as well.

"Right," Amelia repeated, raising one schedule to squint at the name. "Lovino Vargas?" A few snickers broke out unwillingly as Romano stalked forward and snatched the paper from the woman's hand. Amelia swallowed nervously and continued, forcing a bit more confidence into her voice. "Matthew Williams." She clearly didn't see Canada until he actually took the paper from her, and visibly held back a yelp of surprise.

It continued on like that for a while, with Amelia calling the names of "Ari Sigurrosson, Gilbert Beilschmidt, Feliciano Vargas, Wang Yao, Im Yong Soo, Arthur Kirkland, Wang Hong, Antonio Carriedo, Kiku Honda, Vash and Lilli Zwingli, Lien Lu'o'ng." She paused at one of the last schedules to be handed out, looking extremely confused. "Tino…V-Vanman…Van…"

"Vӓinӓmӧinen," Finland supplied helpfully.

Amelia nodded weakly. "Um, okay. Here, just take it." She managed to finish handing the rest of them out, looking exhausted at the end. She was probably new on the job, a few noted.

She gestured for the group to follow her and led them down an extensive hallway. "This is the main hallway where the math and English classes are. Language classes are on the third floor, and the fine arts classes are in the basement. Science is in the east wing and world cultures and history are in the east." The nations perked up at the last part. If anything, world culture and history would be the most fun part of this experiment.

Amelia took a moment to clear her throat before continuing. "PE and the gym are in a separate building just out that door." She indicated the way with a wave of her hand. "Culinary, consumer science, and home economics are in the smaller building near the back, next to the auto, woodshop, and welding garage."

"There are too many buildings in this place," Denmark complained loudly, sounding irritated. "How are we supposed to remember them all?"

"By memorizing," Norway said flatly, "I'm sure even your minimized brain can do that much."

"Ah, uh," Amelia waved her hands to get their attention. "Um, I need to get back to work. Do you all have everything down? Yes? Good." With that, the woman turned on her heel and borderline ran back to the office.

Seychelles blinked. "Did she just abandon us?"

Spain nodded in affirmation. "She just did. What a strange woman…"

England sighed, checking his watch and running a hand through his already-messy hair. "Well, it's about time to head inside. We should hurry."

"Guys, guys!" America jumped up and down, his hand in the air. "Everyone has homeroom first period, right? Let's look at the schedules and see if we have anything together."

"Seeing how there's so many of us, we probably will, aru," China said, amber eyes skimming over the sheet of paper.

The group gathered around into a circle, comparing schedules, before breaking off into groups. China, England, and Switzerland were in one group going to homeroom. Norway and Denmark were together with America, Canada, and Japan. Prussia, Hungary, and the Italy brothers were together. Finland and Vietnam were in a small group to themselves. Iceland, Liechtenstein, Latvia, and Seychelles were in another with Korea and Hong Kong.

"They didn't divide us up very well, did they?" Iceland commented, eyeing his group. "We're all mashed together in big clumps."

"The freshman class must be pretty small," Liechtenstein answered. "But it's better than being all alone, don't you think?"

Iceland and Hong Kong exchanged a glance while watching Seychelles playfully bat Korea's hands away from her chest.

"Hm," the Chinese boy said, "I think that honestly depends. Either way it should be interesting."

"I think we're all just grouped up for homeroom," Latvia said, examining his schedule. "If you look at the time slots, we're all in different classrooms for the most part. Maybe they just try to cram as many students into homeroom as possible?"

"Should we meet up somewhere for lunch?" Finland asked the rest of the nations.

"That's a good idea," England said, nodding. "That way we can make sure everything's going smoothly. Where should we meet up?"

"Um, I have an idea."

The rest jumped at the sound of Canada's small voice.

"Dude, I forgot you were here," America panted, clutching his heart.

Canada continued, though he looked slightly put out, "I noticed on the walk over here that there was a stairwell leading to the roof. We could use that."

"Roof eating, da ze!" Korea fistpumped with an excited grin. "I'm up for that!"

"I like that idea," Hungary smiled. "There'll be lots of space and we won't have to worry about being overheard."

Prussia laid his arm over Canada's shoulders. "Good idea, bro, couldn't have had a better one myself. Well, I could, but you took it before I could say anything."

"T-thanks, I guess?"

"Anyway, the bell's about to ring." Just as Switzerland finished saying the sentence, the bell did indeed ring and suddenly students began to appear in the halls. "Remember the rules!" he called as the nations split into their individual groups.

"Yeah yeah, we got it Switzi! Chill out!"

"Don't call me that!"

"See you guys later!" Seychelles called cheerfully over her shoulder as her group walked away, Korea steering her into the crowd.

Let the game begin.

**A/N:**

**Aww, Korea and Seychelles are cute.**

**Right, so school starts on Thursday of this week (it's Monday right now) so updates will probably slow down. Sorry, there's not a whole lot I can do about that.**

**SO. Who's POV do you want to see next chapter? VOTE IN THE REVIEWS. MAKE SUGGESTIONS FOR THINGS TO HAPPEN. TELL ME WHO'S POV YOU WANT TO SEE.**

**I have a handy list of human names, for anyone who might get lost. Most of them are Hima-papa's official ones, but I made up a couple and Vietnam's and Hong Kong's I borrowed from A.R.C. Fangirl OwOv. **

**Here it is:**

**America- **_**Alfred F. Jones**_

**England**_**- **__**Arthur Kirkland**_

**Canada- **_**Matthew Williams**_

**China- **_**Yao Wang**_

**Japan- **_**Kiku Honda**_

**Italy- **_**Feliciano Vargas**_

**Romano- **_**Lovino Vargas**_

**Spain- **_**Antonio Carriedo**_

**Iceland****- **_**Ari Sigurrosson**_** (after my favorite band, who are Icelandic.)**

**Norway****- **_**Lukas Norland**_

**Denmark- **_**Matthias Hemmingsen**_

**Finland- **_**Tino Vӓinӓmӧinen**_** (Good god, I hate typing that. Copy-paste is my friend.)**

**Switzerland- **_**Vash Zwingli**_

**Liechtenstein**_**- **__**Lilli Zwingli**_

**Prussia- **_**Gilbert Beilschmidt**_

**Hungary- **_**Elizabeta Héderváry**_** (I hate typing that too.)**

**Latvia****- **_**Raivis Vanags**_

**Korea- **_**Im Yong Soo**_

**Seychelles****- **_**Michelle King**_

**Vietnam- **_**Lien Lu'o'ng**_** (Has a nice alliterative ring to it)**

**Hong Kong****- **_**Hong Wang**_

**Long list is long.**

**Thank you for reading and please review! You guys have spoiled me so far and I love it~ it's motivating. The more you review, the faster updates come.**


	4. Chapter 4

Canada

Canada was used to being shoved through large crowds of people, and the cramped halls of an American high school didn't change that. He could barely keep up with the rest of his group; the only thing that made sure he didn't get lost was the fact that Denmark and America were taller than most of the other students. A good deal louder, too. It was strange how three of the quietest nations—being Norway, Japan, and Canada himself—were paired with two of the most boisterous. Well, in any case, Canada was grateful for it this time around. He wasn't sure anyone would notice he was even gone in the event that they got separated.

The school was far too large for Canada's liking, and with far too many students. The noise rang in his ears and the closely-packed bodies were making things uncomfortably hot. Canada liked the cold, as it reminded him of home and was usually where he was most comfortable. As it was, he was typically not surrounded by countless numbers of teenagers. He wasn't sure he liked it very much.

Finally,_ finally_, the group of nations made it to their assigned classroom. Canada couldn't help but groan at the sight of the kids filling the seats. How could one classroom fit so many?! They were packed in like sardines! He averted his attention and instead stared at the ceiling. Great, a room full of people who would probably not notice him as well. Canada mentally bet himself that he would get sat on at some point.

The nations had attracted some attention—students had taken notice of the unfamiliar faces and were glancing at them curiously as the transfers tried to find some place to sit. It was difficult, seeing as the kids were piling all over each other, sitting on laps, desks, kneeling on the floor… in the end, the nations were just standing off to the side looking awkward.

The bell rang then, and the class settled down almost immediately, to Canada's surprise. In his experience, people became quiet once someone intimidating was about to walk through the door. It happened at world meetings with Germany and Sweden all the time. His hypothesis was proven correct as a large, pear-shaped woman with grey hair came marching in, holding a clipboard and wearing cat-eye glasses. Her face was oddly devoid of any wrinkles, save for the frown lines between her eyebrows. America and Denmark exchanged a look.

The woman cleared her throat, and what little chatter had remained in the room quickly died down and everyone paid rapt attention to her.

"Today," she said, in a clear, cool voice that held an audible Mid-Atlantic accent, "something very interesting has happened."

The class was dead silent as the woman's hawk-like eyes swept across the room, landing on the five nations standing off to the side. Canada felt Japan shift uncomfortably next to him as the focus was narrowed in on them once again.

Canada stifled a flinch as the woman walked towards them, heels clicking against the tiled floor. She positioned herself in front of the line of nations, wielding a ruler like a riding crop. "I am Lucinda Delacour," she said with a dictating tone of voice. "I am a drama instructor at this establishment, and have been for the past thirty years." Delacour dropped into a low curtsy. "On behalf of both the student body and administration alike, I welcome you to this school."

One could have heard a pin drop in the ensuing silence. Canada glanced to his right to see the reactions of the four others; Japan was gaping slightly, America was chewing on his tongue to prevent breaking into laughter, Denmark was grinning outright, and Norway was as flatly stoic as usual.

The drama teacher straightened up and adjusted her glasses, unfazed by the lack of reaction to her performance. "Well then! I believe introductions are in order. I'm sure the students in this classroom are eager to hear about so many different cultures. We have an incredibly wide variety of transfer students joining us today; I find it a pleasure to host a few in my class."

America coughed loudly, barely disguising a snicker. Delacour zeroed in on him.

"What's your name, boy? Which majestic corner of the globe do you hail from?"

America's blue eyes widened at her for a fraction of a second before he recovered. "Uh, I'm Alfred F. Jones," he introduced, grinning confidently. "I'm just from Washington D.C., pretty close to the White House. I guess it's majestic."

Delacour nodded stiffly. "Very good." She turned to Japan, who jumped slightly. "What about you? You are evidently from somewhere in the Orient. I've always dreamed of visiting."

Japan turned slightly pink. "A-Ah, I am Honda Kiku. Well, I suppose it would be Kiku Honda here… my home is in Tokyo, Japan."

"Tokyo is such a grand city," the strange teacher commented, a faraway look in her eyes. "I would truly enjoy viewing a Kabuki theatre someday."

Japan looked hopelessly lost, and resorted to bowing slightly. Delacour cleared her throat and turned to the two Nordics. She had to crane her neck to get a good look at Denmark. "Introduce yourself, if you would."

"Right." The Dane scratched the back of his head. "I'm Matthias Hemmingsen, I guess. I'm from Denmark, which is pretty majestic if you ask me. We have all the best—"

"And you?" Delacour had cut him off to address Norway, who stared at her with an unreadable expression.

"Lukas Norland. From Norway."

"Excellent. Now that we're all properly introduced, you may take your seats. There are extras in the back there, so please go there."

Canada suppressed a sigh. He supposed he shouldn't be surprised. He may not like an excessive amount of attention, but just a little recognition would be nice every now and then… but he knew at this point, from past experiences, that trying to get Delacour's attention would be futile.

The other four exchanged a slightly confused look before shrugging and heading in the direction of the desks. Canada swallowed his small, familiar disappointment and began to follow them when a sudden voice rang out in the silence.

"Hey, Mrs. Delacour, you forgot one!"

Canada stiffened and turned his head to the teacher. She looked shocked and was staring at him as if she had never seen him before. Well, then again, she probably hadn't. However, she regained her composure impressively quickly and marched up to the Canadian purposefully. He shrank under her sharp gaze.

"I-I'm sorry, I should have said something, I—"

His whispered apology was interrupted by the loud, accented voice of Lucinda Delacour. "The fault is entirely mine!" she boomed, only making Canada cringe back further. "Please, by all means tell us your name and exactly why you look so strikingly similar to the American transfer!"

Canada heard America snort from behind him.

"U-U-Um, I'm Matthew, uh, Matthew Williams…"

"Speak up! Your audience cannot hear you properly!"

The shy blond glanced around, hoping to keep his eyes away from hers. He was afraid he would melt if he met her narrowed glare. To his surprise, Canada noticed many of the students giving him looks of abject sympathy.

"I'm Matthew Williams," he began again, raising his voice. "I'm just from Ottawa. Uh, that's in Canada. Alfred's my, uh, brother…"

"How is it that two blood relatives are of separate nationalities?" Delacour asked sharply. Canada swallowed.

"I was adopted and grew up in Canada," he mumbled. "I'm a Canadian citizen. I have been my entire life." _Dammit America,_ he cursed inwardly. _This school thing was a stupid idea._

Canada was held under scrutiny for a few more moments, before Delacour nodded and gestured in the direction of the empty desks. Immensely relieved, Canada sighed heavily and sat down, running a hand through his hair. Thank God that was over with.

Delacour announced the official beginning of homeroom or, as she put it, the spiritual study hall period. There were more than a few eye rolls at the last bit.

America struck up a conversation with Japan while Denmark went to his ritual Annoying Norway routine. Having brought nothing to do, and nobody to talk with, Canada leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling, ready to stay in that position for the remainder of the hour. He closed his eyes, listening to the various conversations and classroom noises in the air. He had been that way for several minutes when he felt something small hit his face. Canada opened his eyes and sat up, noticing the small ball of paper roll off his chest onto the floor.

"Hey!" Someone whispered, and Canada recognized the voice as the one who pointed out he had been forgotten. He turned to see who it was, and saw a girl with long, frizzy hair and mousy features. "Delacour will skin you alive if she catches you sleeping," she said, nodding her head in the teacher's direction. Delacour was engrossed in a Shakespeare screenplay, not paying the slightest bit attention to the rising amount of activity in the room.

"Thanks," Canada answered, giving her a shaky smile. The girl grinned back.

"Your name's Matthew, right?"

"Y-Yeah…"

"I'm Amy. I have relatives in Canada, so I think it's really cool you're from there." Amy brushed her bangs out of her eyes. "They're in Winnipeg. Have you been there?"

"Hey, Amy, don't hog the transfer kid all to yourself," another voice interrupted, joining the conversation. A group of three or so other students had turned around in their seats to talk. Canada glanced over his shoulder and saw that the other four nations were conversing amongst themselves. He gave a dry swallow. He was all on his own, huh?

"You look like you think we're going to bite you," Amy joked, leaning on her elbow. "We're not going to bite your head off or anything, so don't worry. No need to be shy."

"I'm…just not used to being noticed," Canada replied honestly. "I didn't think anyone would talk to me here."

"That's stupid," one of Amy's friends commented, "you seem pretty cool."

Canada blinked, surprised, and felt a warm, happy feeling blossom in his chest. Maybe spending the next six months here wouldn't be so bad after all.

**xXx**

Liechtenstein

Liechtenstein couldn't help but be nervous watching as her brother walked down the hall with England and China after the bell rang. Sure, she was in a group with people she trusted, and Korea, but Switzerland added an extra sense of security in unfamiliar situations. The small group of teenage nations stuck together in the hall, staying near the wall as the sea of other students crowded past. If anything, Liechtenstein was thankful she wasn't on her own. This would be a nightmare if she was.

"I see an opening!" Seychelles exclaimed, pointing. "Come on, let's get to our class!" She grabbed Latvia, who was nearest, and led the others through a gap in the large crowd and down the hall, managing to find the way to the room they were supposed to be in. It appeared they were early, as only a few other students were in their seats and the rest were vacant. The teacher looked up as they walked in.

"Oh, you're the transfer students right? That's fine, you don't need to introduce yourselves, just take a desk anywhere. It's open seating."

They nodded in understanding. However, when Seychelles tried to pull up a chair, a girl glared at her and snapped, "That spot's taken."

"There's nobody sitting there," Seychelles pointed out.

"It's open seating, too," Korea added.

"Look, it's saved, okay?" another girl said, narrowing her eyes. "We know you're new and foreign and all but sit somewhere else."

"Let's just leave it," Latvia said quietly, tugging on the Créole nation's sleeve.

"Fine, fine." Seychelles rolled her eyes and scanned the classroom. The room was filling up now, and there weren't any spots where they could sit together as a group. The nations exchanged uneasy looks as they split up, Iceland, Latvia, and Hong Kong sitting near the back, Korea and Seychelles together in the front, and Liechtenstein was left to take a seat in a back corner. There was only one other person there, a girl with her dark hair in two thick plaits and her nose buried in a book. She barely glanced up as Liechtenstein sat next to her, and hurriedly dropped her eyes back.

Well, what harm could making a friend do? Liechtenstein tried to work up her courage, not used to these situations, and managed it in the end.

"Hello," she said softly, though loud enough for the girl to hear. The other students were making a racket all around them.

The girl peeked over her glasses, hazel eyes widened in surprise. She raised her head fully, revealing a round face and pleasant features.

"Hi," she responded shyly, lips turning up slightly. Liechtenstein smiled back.

"I'm Lilli Zwingli," she said. "Who are you?"

"Nina." The girl swallowed nervously. "Nina Smith."

Liechtenstein's smiled widened. "I like that. It's pretty."

"T-Thank you… I like yours too."

"What are you reading?"

Nina hesitated, then turned the cover of her book face-up. "It's called Graceling. It's very good."

"What's it about?"

Liechtenstein liked the way Nina's face lit up when she was asked. "Oh! It's about these special kinds of people called Gracelings. They all have a different type of power that's unique to them and when they're discovered, they go to work for their kings."

"That sounds familiar," Liechtenstein said before she could stop herself. She clamped her mouth shut, not intending to have blurted that out. A regular human didn't need to get nosy about the nations' life stories. Nina looked at her a bit curiously before continuing. "Anyway the main character is this girl named Katsa who's Grace is killing. But it's not really, she just thinks it is."

Liechtenstein was going to ask, "What is it really?" but didn't get the opportunity to, because at that moment a hand dropped over Nina's head and plucked the book out of her hands.

"Hey, if you don't watch it, you'll infect the new kid. I bet she doesn't want to be as nerdy as you," came a familiar voice. The two girls looked up and Liechtenstein recognized the girls that had been rude to Seychelles earlier. Nina seemed to know them as well, as she paled and dropped her head.

The lead girl, a thin redhead with an unnatural tan, opened the inside cover of Nina's book and read it with raised eyebrows. She let out a mocking laugh. "Wow, this looks lame. Why can't you do anything cool, Nina? Nobody likes things like this. I bet you'd actually have friends if you dropped the lame hobbies." Her blue eyes gave the dark-haired girl a critical once-over. "Well, drop the hobbies and a few pounds. Then we can talk."

Liechtenstein felt a strong surge of anger and she jumped up from her chair. "Give it back," she said in a low, dangerous tone, holding her hand out. "Give Nina's book back, and go away."

The girls looked surprised for a moment, then started giggling. "Oooh, check this out, Amanda," a tall brunette gasped. "What's the cute little British girl going to do?"

"I'm German, and if you had a shred of intelligence you would know that," Liechtenstein retorted hotly. "I guess even you need some improvement. I'd like to be your friend. Read a few books, then we can talk."

A look of shock then fury crossed the lead girl Amanda's face. "Who do you think you are?" she hissed, taking a step forward. Liechtenstein stepped between her and Nina. The shy girl was watching the scene in terror, remaining completely still. "You're just some pathetic little girl who doesn't know how things work around here. Why don't you just butt out and go home to Germany or wherever the hell you're from?"

"Liechtenstein," the smaller girl corrected mildly, feeling calmer in spite of the redhead's outburst. "I'm from Liechtenstein."

"Do I look like I care? You—"

"Excuse me." Before anyone could react, the book was swiped from Amanda's grasp and held out of her reach. The group turned in surprise, and Liechtenstein almost laughed out loud.

"Is there a problem?" Iceland asked, passing the book to back to Nina, who took it immediately. Hong Kong stood next to the white-haired nation, and behind him Liechtenstein could see Korea and Seychelles getting ready to leave their seats and come over. Latvia was hanging a few feet behind Iceland ad Hong Kong, looking apprehensive.

The three other girls looked from Liechtenstein to Iceland and Hong Kong, and bared her teeth in what was probably supposed to be a smile. "Of course not. We were just having a little talk, right?"

"Maybe you should keep to yourself next time," Hong Kong suggested darkly. "Don't bother our friend again. You'll regret it."

Amanda narrowed her eyes and the Chinese boy, but remained silent. She crossed her arms and walked away, sending a venomous glare over her shoulder as she was followed by her friends.

Liechtenstein sighed and leaned against a desk, suddenly feeling exhausted.

"You alright?" Iceland asked her so quietly only she could hear. Liechtenstein nodded.

"I'm not used to getting that angry," she told him, and he exchanged a smirk with Hong Kong.

"You never get angry, ever," Iceland replied, "Vash always does that for you."

"Well…" Liechtenstein fiddled with her hair ribbon, "he's not here right now."

"Um…" the three of them turned to see Nina holding her book to her chest, visibly blinking back tears. "Thank you for that. Nobody's ever stood up for me before."

Hong Kong nodded. "No problem. I'm going to sit back down now." Iceland passed Liechtenstein a small smile and followed his friend.

"Whew," Liechtenstein sighed, collapsing back into her seat. She looked towards Nina, who was staring at her with anxiety.

"A-Are you alright? I'm sorry…" Nina hid her face in her hands.

Liechtenstein frowned. "What are you apologizing for? You didn't do anything wrong."

"Neither did you," Nina groaned, "but now Amanda is going to be after you. She doesn't quit."

The German girl gave her a reassuring look. "I'm not worried," she said. "I have lots of people who will back me up."

Nina glanced at the other transfers. "Them?"

Liechtenstein nodded, and pointed them out individually. "That's Ari, Raivis, and Hong. Over there is Michelle and Yong Soo. We have other friends here as well, and I have my older brother."

"I see…" Nina breathed out through her nose.

"Does this sort of thing happen often?" Liechtenstein asked, concerned. Nina nodded dully.

"People like them are all over this school," she answered a bit sadly. "Mostly they just leave people like me alone, but once they decide to pick on you…" Nina shook her head. "No stopping it." She raised her eyes to see Liechtenstein staring at her with a determined look in her eyes.

"I'm going to be your friend," the blond girl said. "I'm going to make it stop."

**A/N:**

**I was EXHAUSTED after school today. I have no friggin clue how I managed to hammer out this 3000 word chapter AND write the new chapter for Somebody Told Me with Lolo. I'm. So. Tired.**

**So I'm going to try and fit a few different POVs in a single chapter, maybe around three. Only two for this one because it got long and I'm trying not to die at the moment. **

**Yay Canada and Liechtenstein! Tell me in the reviews who you want to go next, okay? That really helps me out when it comes to planning the chapters.**

**Thanks for reading! I'd like it if you could make use of the nice little review box below this AN. I'd love it, actually. Please do that~**


	5. Chapter 5

The only reason England was even doing this was because of America. The younger nation was loud, destructive, and needed constant attention. If he didn't need to supervise his former colony, England would happily be spending his six months off drinking tea and catching up on his needlework. That's what he told himself after homeroom ended and he found himself sitting in an English class with completely illiterate American teenagers. Switzerland had gone off to a chemistry class of some sort, but China had the same second period as England. The Brit would never say it out loud, but he was thankful for the company. He wasn't sure how bearable this would be if he were alone.

England could tell the Asian nation wasn't all that thrilled about the whole situation. China grumbled complaints occasionally, looked around the rooms with disdain, and it was common knowledge that he wouldn't have even signed up if the other Asians and America hadn't dragged him into it. The fact that they were in an English class, when China disliked English, probably wasn't helping matters. Every time he spoke England noticed him visibly trying to swallow his accent tic –aru.

He sighed and looked up at the clock. The teacher was ten minutes late, and the chaos in the room was ridiculous. He and China had taken seats at the back of the room to try and avoid the more physical students, but stopping the noise was impossible. China seemed unfazed, however, with his chin in his palm and a blank, glazed-over look in his eyes.

"So hey," England started, trying to make conversation, "how do you think this whole thing's going to turn out?"

China glanced swiftly at him, and then returned to his original position. "I think we'll get too attached to the people here, someone will let slip about us but nobody will take it seriously, and we'll all be disappointed when it's over, ar—" He cut himself off, looking pained.

"You say that like it includes yourself," England commented, slightly amused.

China rolled his eyes. "Of course it includes me. I'm a part of this group whether I like it or not, so what happens to everyone else will inevitably happen to me. It's happened that way in history countless times."

"You're comparing historical events to being in a high school for six months?" England blinked. "Alright then. Can I ask something else?"

"You might as well."

"Why didn't Tai—I mean, Mei come? I would have thought she would to be with Hong."

China cracked a smile at that. "She said she didn't want to spend her vacation getting up at the crack of dawn and going in to do boring work. She said she did enough of that when she wasn't on break."

England snorted. "She's smart."

China nodded once and frowned. "We're being stared at."

England looked around and saw that it was true. Through nobody was outright staring, they were getting a lot of looks thrown their way. He supposed that was to be expected. They were new students after all, and not American. The same thing had happened in homeroom.

"I wish they would say something," China muttered. "That's rude."

The blond nation didn't get a chance to respond, because at that moment the teacher finally decided to walk in, looking harassed. "Sorry I'm late," she said, "there were some things I needed to print…shall we get started?"

England and China, happy to have the attention off of them, sighed and slumped down in their chairs. This was probably going to be extremely boring.

**xXx**

"Aiyah," China groaned as the bell rang for third period, "that was almost physically painful."

England had to agree. The English class was by no means fun, by any standard. The teacher made them introduce themselves, and China had accidentally let his accent slip, earning a few giggles and smirks from the other students. He then whispered a Chinese curse word; one England was familiar with due to all the times it was aimed towards him. This put both of them in a bad mood and totally botched their first impressions.

Not to mention how bad these kids were with English. England himself was mortified. What the hell were Americans teaching in their schools?

He sighed heavily and rubbed his eyes. "Where are you off to next?"

China pulled out his schedule and eyed it with a dark look. "It's a math class, aru." He apparently decided to just screw it and speak the way he wanted.

"Have fun with that."

He got an exaggerated moan in response and China gave him a dull wave as he turned and headed down the hall in the opposite direction. England looked at his schedule as well, and noted he had biology on an upper floor. The main stairs were packed, but he managed to find a side stairwell that served the same purpose and was hardly inhabited. He made his way to the proper classroom, sitting in the back again to avoid unnecessary attention.

He had been there for maybe five minutes, possibly more, when a teacher came rushing into the room, looking around. He wasn't worried; it probably had nothing to do with him.

"Arthur Kirkland? Is Arthur Kirkland in here?"

Okay, scratch that last thought. England sighed heavily and raised his hand. "I'm here."

The teacher looked relieved. "They need you in the office."

England blinked. "Right now?" Dammit, the students were staring again. The teacher nodded. "Well, alright then. But what's going on?"

"Just something they need to straighten out," she answered. "It won't take long, and then you can come back."

And so, an extremely confused England made his way towards the main office. As he was walking down the hall, he noticed Vietnam coming down towards him. They stared at each other, surprised.

"Are you going to the office?" she asked, brow furrowing.

"I am. Are you?" When Vietnam nodded, England mimicked her facial expression. "That's interesting. I wonder what's going on."

She shrugged. "Well, in any case, you're going the wrong way."

England coughed. "R-right. Let's just go." They walked together in silence, both silently pondering what they could have been called to the office for. It became apparent, however, when they reached the place itself and three familiar faces looked at them guiltily.

"Oh bloody hell," England groaned, facepalming. "We're not even halfway through the first day. What did you do?"

America, who was sandwiched between Korea and Hong Kong, let out a huff of breath that blew his bangs upward. Crossing his arms, he said, "It's not our fault! Some guys were being jerks to Ice and Lilli. We were only sticking up for them."

"But what happened?" Vietnam looked torn between exasperation and amusement.

"Lilli got caught up with this mean girl in first period," Korea explained. "Ice and Hong got her to back off, but after class her boyfriend or something cornered them and started talking crap, da ze. 'Chelles had already gone on ahead, or else she would be in here too, because Hong and I caught Amer—uh, Alfred, who was walking by, and we kinda..." He trailed off, scratching the back of his head. Hong Kong rolled his eyes.

"We might have gotten a little bit violent," he deadpanned. "The other boys got off scot-free but a teacher hauled the three of us down here and had us call our relatives."

"And the only relatives we have are all here," America continued, "so I called Artie and Hong and Yong Soo called Viet."

"Why me, though?" Vietnam asked. "Yao would have come."

"Aniki would have _lectured_," Korea corrected. "You're more laid back about this kind of thing, da ze. Anyway, it looks like the principal is coming..." The group turned and saw he was right. None of them had met the principal before, so this was a first impression.

He didn't look altogether that pleasant, as a short, stout man with a cherry-red face and an obvious toupee. He wore an unattractive tan tweed suit with a bolo tie and unmatching green shoes.

"Eek," Vietnam muttered. "Anyone do anything illegal lately? This guy will be on your case."

"He reminds me of one of my bosses," America whispered in response, looking stunned.

The principal stopped a few feet from the group, hands on his hips. Despite his small stature, he radiated an aura of intimidation and superiority. He cleared his throat loudly and straightened his tie. "I trust you all understand why you're here?"

England almost laughed at loud. The principal's deep voice spoke with the phoniest British accent he had ever heard. There was nothing authentic about it; it was a total fake, and he would know! At this, he had to struggle not to crack a wide smile. He fought it down and instead focused on nodding as an answer. He didn't trust himself to say anything.

The principal continued. "I am Dr. Hubbard, the principal here, as you know. I understand you all are transfer students, but even so you need to know the rules. We do not tolerate fighting of any kind. We have a Mandarin teacher here in the school, the one who brought you here, I assume. She overheard some of the little spat in the halls..." he gave the Asians a sharp look. Though Hong Kong was the only one who spoke Mandarin, and the only one who ever threw violent insults around, they all felt uncomfortable under his gaze. "What was said was not school-appropriate. This is your first warning, children. The next strike will be your last."

Hubbard dismissed them with a wave of his hand, and the nations filed out feeling relieved.

"That wasn't as bad as I thought it would be," America sighed, a hand on his chest. "That guy looked pretty scary."

"He doesn't seem the type to mess around, either," Vietnam added. "We'd better lay low as much as possible. He's the kind of person to get nosy."

"We should be lying low anyway," England said, raising his eyebrows, "and not getting into trouble three hours into the first day."

"Yeah, yeah," America waved a hand dismissively. "You're starting to sound like Switzi."

England kept his mouth shut. He didn't have an argument to that.

**A/N:**

**Ehhhh I was gonna have another POV in here, but then I didn't feel like writing a whole lot and I needed to update, so I thought, "Fuck it, this works." But yay, England POV. I'll probably do Prussia and someone else next. Not sure who, but we do need a Nordic...**

**Also, I have created a Facebook page by the name of Hatsu Yukiya (I was bored). If you like it, then I'll be posting things like what I'm working on, what will be updated, me being random, etc. So please go like it!  
**

**Thank you for reading and please review!**


	6. Chapter 6

There was one place you never wanted to put Prussia and Hungary together, and that was in a large room full of dangerous chemicals. Okay, they knew they weren't supposed to play with them and have an explosion battle, but the temptation was there. The two nations were paired up at a table, ratty Chemistry books sitting in front of them. Prussia's white hair and red eyes were drawing a bit of attention, but the albino was too busy bragging to Hungary about the contest to notice.

"I'm totally going to win this thing! The others should just stop trying."

"Stop flattering yourself, you know I'm going to win." Hungary smirked, leaning back in her chair, completely lax.

"Sure, keep telling yourself that."

"I will. I make it a habit not to lie to myself and others." Hungary casually combed her fingers through her hair. Prussia snorted but didn't get a chance to answer as the teacher walked into the room and rapped on the blackboard to get the class' attention.

"Alright, class. Let's get down to business." he instructed, "please turn to page thirty in your chemistry books."

The class did as they were told and the room was filled with the sound of pages being flipped through.

"Your supplies are where they usually are. Get what's necessary and follow the instructions on the board. I'll come around in a bit and see how you're doing." With that, the teacher sat down at his computer and opened up a game of solitaire. Prussia and Hungary looked around, confused, but decided to follow the other students and get what they needed. They returned to their seats and set their supplies down on the table. They glanced around the room to see how everyone else was conducting their experiments.

"So, just pour this stuff in here." the Prussian had already grabbed a vile and was beginning to pour.

"Wait, Pru-Gilbert, stop!"

"Huh?" Prussia looked up when Hungary grabbed his wrist.

"You aren't supposed to add those two chemicals. Look, it's supposed to be like this." Hungary picked up the proper vial and poured in moderation. "Honestly, read the instructions. You aren't going to win if you get kicked out for blowing up the classroom."

"You know how awesome that would be?"

Hungary gave the German a fixed glare, "No, that would not be awesome! Now don't touch anything."

Prussia never verbally admitted that Hungary was right about something, but he slumped back in his chair and allowed her to do the work. He had no idea how she became so good at this, but there it was. "Can't I do anything?" he whined.

"Sure," she answered. "When we're done you can clean the supplies."

"...That's not any fun."

"You asked if you can do anything and I told you."

"But that's not even the least bit awesome."

"Deal with it!" Hungary sighed irritably. "So let me ask you something."

"What?"

"Do you think this school thing is worth it?"

Prussia blinked. "What do you mean? You were as excited about it as I was."

"I know, it's just...do you think it will be hard to leave when it's over? I mean, we're bound to make friends here, right?"

"Well, yeah, I guess." Prussia replied, frowning.

"So do you think it'll be hard to leave?"

"I'm not sure yet." He shrugged.

Hungary smirked. "Amazing. The Almighty Prussia doesn't know the answer to a question."

Prussia didn't get a chance to retaliate, because at that moment a tall, roguish looking boy came sauntering up to their table, eyeing Hungary in a way that made the German instantly hate him. He had a couple of his friends with him, and even his friends' girlfriends. Scheiß, did this guy really need that much backup?

Prussia narrowed his eyes and watched the boy with mistrust.

"Hey, you're one of the transfer students, right?" he asked in a silky voice. Hungary raised her eyebrows.

"Yes? Can I help you?"

"I'm James Thompson. Hey, you need help with anything? We've finished the assignment already and it looks you're going a bit slow."

Inwardly, Prussia roared with laughter. Nothing set Hungary off like an accidental insult to her intelligence. He saw the mischievous glint in Hungary's eyes and knew she was up to something. She stood up and dusted herself off, "I do need a little help, but, I think I forgot one of the supplies... Can you go get it for me?"

"Sh'yeah I can," he went over to the back of the room with his possy following close behind. Hungary turned to Prussia, gesturing for him to pour one of the vials in the main liquid.

Prussia grinned wickedly. She had an evil mind. He grabbed one of the vials and dumped the whole thing in. When James came back, Hungary smiled thankfully and asked if he could demonstrate the next step.

"Anything for you," he leaned in, taking one of the vials, looking concentrated on what he was doing when the chemicals exploded, right in his face. He jumped back, surprised by the sudden explosion, looking dazed. The smoke had rushed up so quickly, it left a thick coating of a sickly shade of orange all over James' face. "What the _hell?!"_

Hungary pouted. "I thought you knew what you were doing."

"I do, I..." He glanced around wildly before his eyes landed on Prussia. "He was glaring at me as I walked up! He must have done something!"

Hungary's eyes darted from James to Prussia, "I don't think he would do that."

Prussia leaned back and stuck his tongue out at the boy.

"Granted, Gilbert does a lot of stupid thing," Hungary continued, "but he wouldn't be able to pull of something like that. I told him not to touch anything."

"Yeah, and I listen to my girlfriend." Prussia chipped in innocently.

"G-girlfriend?" James spluttered.

Hungary leaned down and kissed Prussia on the mouth. James looked like he was ready to pass out right there. They broke off and Prussia sent him a smirk.

"Yep. Girlfriend."

"But... I..." James again glared at Prussia then at Hungary, "You will pay for this."

He stumbled away, attempting futilely to wipe away the orange on his face. Prussia and Hungary exchanged victorious looks and slapped a high-five.

"Your brother would not approve."

"That's why this is so fun, Fraulein~"

**xXx**

Finland was last to leave the classroom, finding it the most polite thing to do was to not shove his way out. He adjusted his backpack strap and headed down the hallways to the roof. It was lunchtime now, and he had been reciting the location for the national meet-up during the last ten minutes of class. He remembered vaguely where the staircase Canada had pointed out was, he just needed to find it. After wandering around the school halls for five minutes, he eventually did manage to find the staircase. Relieved, Finland began his way up the steps, ignoring the students who were giving him a questioning look.

The day had been somewhat stressful. English wasn't Finland's best subject, and he had gotten a few snickers when he attempted to say his R's the proper English way. However, when the teacher asked what his hobbies were and he answered, "Cooking, guns, and sharpshooting," the laughs had died down immediately.

_Who's laughing now?_ Finland thought to himself. When he reached the rooftop, he discovered himself to be the first one there. He frowned, wondering where everyone else was.

...he wasn't on the wrong roof, was he? Finland shook himself. That wasn't possible, because none of them had left the main building. He knew that for a fact.

All the same, he still jumped violently when the door opened behind him. It was so quiet up there, the noise startled him.

"Finland?" the Finn let out a relieved sigh, recognizing the Spanish accent.

"Spain." Finland turned around, smiling, "and Romano, how is school?"

"Sucks balls!" Romano spat, kicking at the ground. Spain laughed nervously.

"Lovi isn't having the time of his life..."

"No shit, I'm not! This is stupid!"

"He got made fun of, a little bit..."

"It's stupid Veneziano's fault!"

Almost on cue, Italy burst through the door and ran to glomp his brother. "I'm sorry fratello! I didn't mean to! Please forgive me!"

Finland blinked. "What did he do?"

Spain shuddered in response. "You don't want to know, amigo…"

"Ah, alright."

The rest of the group began crowding in, some looking exhausted by the day so far. Others looking triumphant.

The rest of the Nordics, Denmark, Norway, and Iceland, came up a bit later than everyone else and headed over to where Finland was standing.

Switzerland, who had come in with Liechtenstein, did a head count. "Is everyone here?"

They all called yes.

"Cool, let's eat!" America cheered, already unpacking his things. Finland took a seat against the rooftop wall with the rest of the Nordics. As they ate, they all traded stories of what had happened so far that day. To Hong Kong's surprise, when China was told of what happened in the hallway, he didn't rant. Instead he told the younger boy how he could have pinched the back of the bully's neck and make him temporarily stop breathing.

The group listened to Prussia explain what happened in chemistry, his tone growing more and more excited as the story went on. Often, Hungary would interrupt to add her view on the story. They all burst out laughing as the two described how the orange smoke went up in a mushroom cloud. However, when Liechtenstein started describing what had happened to her in homeroom-Iceland and Hong Kong providing exposition-everyone looked serious. After Liechtenstein concluded her tale of how her day went, the next person to tell was Seychelles.

"The people here seem kind of rude," she said with a frown. "There were the girls who picked on Lilli, and I'm in other classes with a couple of them. I feel like this is a problem."

"What should we do about it?" Canada asked, softly, speaking everyone's question.

The group remained silent, each thinking of an idea.

"...Is there much we can do?" Finland asked, raising his hand. "We can try to stop it when it happens, but there are a lot of kids in this school..."

"I don't know," Japan sighed, looking tired.

Some members looked torn, unsure what else to say. The bell rang after a while, so they all split up and agreed to meet at the front of the school when the classes ended. America had a house in this city, and that's where all the countries were staying.

"See you guys later," he said, waving. The others nodded and went to finish the day.

**A/N:**

**This chapter was co-written with KokoLolo! Because I was lazy. Thank you Lolo~**

**I made a Facebook page called ****Hatsu Yukiya. ****If you like it, you'll get some statuses on what I'm doing/working on/randomness, etc. so please go like it! I would appreciate it!**

**Also, on mine and Lolo's shared account, ****Hatsu and Lolo,**** we have a new OC-centric story and if you guys could check it out, we would appreciate that as well…**

**Thank you for reading and please review!**

"


	7. Chapter 7

Japan did not appreciate the situation he was in.

He was getting far, far more attention than he had ever been comfortable with, what with being one of the 'exotic new transfers,' or something. That was not okay with him. He did not like strangers talking to him. This needed to stop. Why did he agree to this school idea in the first place?

Oh. Germany had asked him to. Right. There was also the matter of America's puppy stare, the one used with deadly efficiency against the Asian nation. America had looked ready to get down on his knees and beg Japan to participate if he didn't say yes.

It was an enormous relief when the final bell of the day rang. Japan sighed heavily and headed to the front of the school, weaving through the chaotic maze of students in the hallway. That was another problem. There were far too many people here, whether they talked to him directly or not. Japan had spent a good few centuries of his life purposely staying away from other human beings, and was still not quite out of the stranger-danger mindset.

He made an immediate beeline for the small gathering of other nations around a flagpole, waiting for the others. After a few minutes, the rest of the transfers filed out. Luckily, America's house was in walking distance of the school. It was a bit of a ways, but they had to deal with it because no car would fit twenty-one people in it, no matter how much America and others would insist it was possible.

"So did everyone have a good rest of the day?" Seychelles asked, cheerily skipping next to Korea. The two of them had seemed inseparable since the beginning of the day, Japan noted with some amusement.

There was a mixed response. Some were positive, some negative, and the rest simply sounded exhausted. Whether they had a good day or not, everyone was looking forward to getting home and resting for a bit.

"I'm beginning to understand why Mei-mei didn't come," Hong Kong muttered. "This is almost harder than work, if you ask me."

"At least at work we don't have any secrets to keep," Latvia agreed, rubbing his shoulders where the straps of his schoolbag were digging in. all the nations had received a ridiculous amount of books on their first day.

"Dude, seriously, right?"

"Don't you complain, stupid, this was your idea," Romano snapped to American, who stuck his tongue out as a pathetic retaliation.

"There are lots of stupid people here, not just him," England pointed out. "Some of these kids, honestly. I know I shouldn't generalize like this, but the main student body seems to be a bit dim."

"Should be expected, considering we are dealing with _American_ students, aru," China muttered.

"I do not believe they are all bad," Japan said thoughtfully. It was his habit to keep quiet in discussions like this, but then again, it was also his habit to stay out of America's crazy schemes. "There are nice students here, and even the ones who seem dim usually aren't."

America immediately began a heated defense of his country's youth that turned into a worldwide debate, which lasted until they reached the large house he had bought for the occasion. Large was _large,_ enough to all twenty-one nations to live comfortably inside and still have enough space to avoid each other if necessary. They ordered pizza that night, which made the Italians happy, and actually gathered in a circle in the expansive living room to discuss homework.

"So..." Finland's face scrunched up in concentration as he stared at the textbook in front of him. "I can't say I particularly understand this. English is hard."

"This chemistry stuff sucks balls!" Prussia complained loudly from where he sat with Hungary. Apparently the two had been given extra homework after the smoke catastrophe that morning. He was reading aloud from a book while the Hungarian girl wrote up an essay on where they went wrong.

"Hey, if you take 3x plus 6y equals twelve, where do the lines intersect on a graph?"

"Figure it out yourself, tomato bastard. Or at least tell me what the word "Antithesis" is supposed to mean. English is dumb."

"Ve~ School is hard!"

"No shit, dude."

"Quit the bickering," Switzerland sighed, rubbing his temples. He was bent over Liechtenstein's Biology textbook, attempting to make sense of Punnett squares. Korea, who had the same class, wasn't even trying and was instead seeing how long he could lay on his back and balance his book on his toes.

Japan, personally, had to agree with Italy's angry brother. He didn't think English was stupid, per se, just difficult. Fortunately, he wasn't one of the other nations taking a foreign language class; he could see England, Denmark, and Italy suffering through French on the other side of the room.

Iceland had paired up with Norway for math. Apparently, his brother was good with numbers as his boss had him do bookkeeping often. Iceland wasn't the only one, either. Norway occasionally got questions asking how to solve a problem.

"This is lame," America huffed. "Homework on the very first day."

"The classes aren't going to stop their schedules just because of a few new students," Vietnam told him, "of course they're still going to give out assignments." She blew her dark bangs out of her face. "Of course, I never said we had to like it."

"This is just part of the game though, right?" Korea asked. "I mean, if we do the homework and stuff, we each have a higher chance of winning." As he said this, his book fell from the perch his feet made and hit him in the face.

"Right!" Prussia jumped and fistpumped towards the ceiling. "When you think about it like that, there's no way we can't do it! Just hold back, losers, the Awesome Prussia is gonna kick your asses at this academic shit!"

That was a challenge issued to the more competitive nations, and soon even doing homework became a race to see who could do it quickest and most efficiently. Well, it got the job done, so Japan couldn't complain, even if he stayed out of the main conversation.

This was certainly not a situation Japan would put himself in by his own volition. But... He looked back down at the English textbook, secretly enjoying the challenge it presented. But, he supposed he could deal with it for the time being.

**A/N:**

**Late update, short, boring chapter. A chapter about homework, fun.**

**Hey, it's nearly midnight here and I haven't been sleeping well lately and I just got done writing a chapter for Chance Encounters. Also, I've been obsessed with Adventure Time, and every time that comes on TV it's just like, "Bitch, it's Adventure Time, wake the fuck up." Plus, with my own school, I've had a ton of homework lately. Mostly German homework. So yeah, I haven't had time to really do anything recreational as I do my homework as I watch TV, then fall asleep.**

**Remember that Facebook page I mentioned? ****Hatsu Yukiya?**** I would be honored if you guys would go check it out. Pretty please?**

**Right, I'm off to bed. Thank you for reading and please review!**


	8. Chapter 8

Seychelles was only a morning person on her island, where she loved getting up to watch the sun rise over the ocean. But here in America, where there was nothing interesting to see early in the morning? Hell no. Woe to the unfortunate bastard who tried to wake her up before eight in the morning. And that's the story of how her alarm clock wound up across the room, shattered into pieces.

She sat up groggily, stretching and absently combing her fingers through her tangled dark hair. Oi, she wouldn't have volunteered for the school game if she knew how early she would have to get up for the stupid thing. Oh well. At least everyone had a room to themselves. A few, like Spain and Romano, had paired up in rooms, but for the most part everyone claimed a space for their own. America didn't pull any punches when it came to living arrangements.

When Seychelles finished getting dressed and went downstairs—passing Denmark and Norway, who were battling it out for a bathroom while Iceland leaned against a wall and watched—China, Finland, and Hungary were making breakfast for everyone. America, Korea, and the Italians were predictably still sleeping while the others were scattered around the lower floor of the house. She waved hello to the ones awake and promptly collapsed onto the couch. She was left there in peace for a few minutes, listening to the sounds of the others waking up and getting ready, before they were called to eat. Soon enough they were all out the door and headed to their second day of school.

As they were walking, Korea skipped up next to her. "You excited?"

Seychelles nodded. "Yeah, I guess. I'm tired."

Korea agreed with a huge yawn. "I know we had to wake up early yesterday too, da ze, but it still isn't any fun."

"Eh, we'll get used to it." She rubbed her eyes.

"We're here!" Someone announced, and everyone split up into their homeroom groups. The other freshmen joined up with Seychelles and Korea and they went to their class. Liechtenstein made a beeline for her new friend Nina, while Iceland and Hong Kong sat with Latvia and only spoke to each other. The last two sat in their spots from the previous day. All of them kept a suspicious eye on Amanda and her group of friends, waiting to make sure she didn't antagonize Liechtenstein any more. The red-haired girl knew it too, if the glances she kept throwing their way were anything to go by.

The bell rang after too long, and Seychelles didn't notice until it was too late that in the bedlam of students leaving, Amanda had surrounded Liechtenstein and Nina again. She only turned around when Korea grabbed her elbow. They weren't the only ones; the others had taken note of it too and were working their way to the back of the room.

"You really don't like to listen to warnings, do you?" Seychelles asked loudly, the nations positioning themselves firmly behind the girl's gang. Amanda flinched, and turned around to glare at her. Seychelles just crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows. She could hear Hong Kong mildly cracking his knuckles behind her.

"Whatever," Amanda muttered, looking furious. "Come on, let's go." She gestured for her friends to follow her, and they bolted out of the classroom.

Liechtenstein wore an uncharacteristic glare, her hands on her hips, and Nina was wiping her eyes. Iceland sighed.

"You'd better watch out for that girl, Lilli. She could become a real problem."

Seychelles had to agree.

** xXx**

"Hey, check that out." Hungary glanced over to where Prussia was pointing, and saw James Thompson across the hallway flirting with a girl she had seen in her math class.

She scoffed. "Figures. I swear that guy..."

"The girl's hot, though," Prussia commented, not considering who he was standing next to as he looked over the girl appreciatively. He let out a painful yelp as Hungary smacked the back of his head. "S-Seriously though, what a player," he covered as he rubbed his skull. "That hurt."

"You deserved it," Hungary told him, rolling her eyes. "Look, I have to go to World Cultures. Talk to you later." She missed the German's grumbled reply as she turned and headed down the hall in the opposite direction. Hungary was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she crashed directly into someone else, spilling their things over the floor.

"_Te j__ó__ Isten,_ I'm sorry!" she gasped, flustered. She bent down and helped the person gather their things, taking a moment to realize who it was. "Oh! Hello, Viet."

"Lien," Vietnam corrected with a small smile. "Don't worry about it. I wasn't watching where I was going either."

"I know, but I should have paid more attention." Hungary stuffed some papers into a folder and passed it back to the Vietnamese girl, who accepted it with a quiet thank you.

"I'd better get to class," she said, adjusting her long ponytail. Hungary nodded and was about to turn away when a voice called out, "Hey wait!"

The two girls looked to see the girl James Thompson had been flirting with running down the hall towards them. Hungary raised her eyebrows. "Yes?"

"You two are some of the transfer kids, right?" the girl asked, panting a bit. When Hungary and Vietnam nodded, she grinned, "Great! I'm Mary Elisabeth McColloch, I'm a senior."

She didn't know the details of British history, but Hungary did know that England would get a kick out of that name. "I'm Elizabeta Héderváry," she introduced, taking note of the similarities between her human name and Mary Elisabeth's.

"Lien Lu'o'ng," Vietnam said formally, nodding slightly. "What do you need?"

Mary Elisabeth's eyes lit up. "Your names are so pretty...anyway, my friends and I were talking about it yesterday, and we were wondering if you would be interested coming over for a sleepover or something? The other girl transfers too, I think we saw a couple others."

Liechtenstein and Seychelles, obviously. Hungary and Vietnam exchanged a glance. "We'd have to talk to Lilli and Michelle, but I'm sure they wouldn't mind," Hungary said. They would have to talk Switzerland into it too, but all in all there couldn't be any harm in it, right?

"Awesome!" Mary Elisabeth's smile widened. "You can just come find me after school or tomorrow or something, and I'll give you my address. Thanks a bunch!" She waved brightly and headed off to whatever class she had to go to.

"That was unexpected," Vietnam commented.

"Yes, but maybe it will be fun," Hungary shrugged. "She seemed nice." She seemed like the kind of girl who would get brainwashed by someone like James very quickly. Hungary would have to be wary of that when it came to him.

The final bell rang, and Vietnam sighed. "And now we're late. I'll see you at lunch.

"Right. See you later."

**A/N:**

** Wow, quick update. So...sleepover time! There will be a few surprises in the next chapter, or the one after that. I'll have to plan that out... anyway. Maybe there'll be some spontaneous guest appearances from unexpected nations?**

** You know, I'll be mentally mapping my chapters out and realize what I could have done better. Well, maybe not better, but I feel like I could have had some more fun if I had used Nyotalia China and added in Romania or someone. But, it's too late now. Or maybe not... I could go into the old chapters and edit them a bit... naw... but hey, if you guys would like that, I can easily genderbend China. Just let me know.**

** Thanks for reading guys, and please review!**


	9. Chapter 9

Everyone knew Switzerland was very protective of his little sister. _Very_ protective. So it didn't come as a surprise to anyone when he immediately disliked the idea of the sleepover. However, Switzerland did make other arguments against it, saying that they didn't know the people the girls would be staying with, identities could slip, it could be a setup for bullying, etc. All of which were good arguments in the hands of anyone else, but considering it was the xenophobic Swiss making them, the other nations just brushed them off.

"You worry too much," Hungary told him, dismissively waving her hand. "Everything will be fine." She returned to discussing with Vietnam what should be taken to the sleepover, while Switzerland stood behind her and spluttered.

"You don't know that!" he insisted. "What if that girl who was bullying Liechtenstein is there? What will happen then?"

He had come to Hungary to voice his concerns because the girl, along with the other older female nations, had the habit of watching over the younger girls. Liechtenstein and other small girls, like Wy and Taiwan, were well taken care of with the other ladies around. Even Belarus had a protective streak when it came to the younger girls. In fact, with all the energy Belarus put into everything, Switzerland even trusted her to watch over Liechtenstein. At least, when he was able to get the blonde's mind off of her brother Russia for more than five minutes.

Vietnam gave the Swiss a sympathetic look. "Switzerland, we understand why you're worried. You're probably the most responsible person here and your concerns are valid ones, but honestly, do you really think we're going to let anything happen to Liechtenstein and Seychelles while we're around?" She smiled softly at him.

"I'm less worried about Seychelles, she can take care of herself," Switzerland replied.

"Lilli can too," Hungary pointed out. "Loosen up, alright?"

Switzerland sighed heavily. "You're right, I know you are, but I would feel better if there was a bit more backup."

"So what do you suggest?"

He pulled out his cell phone. "I have a solution I doubt you'll have a problem with."

**xXx**

"So where are we going?" Belarus asked, placing on hand on her hip as she gave the other nations a hard look. "It's not going to take more than a night, right? I have things to do."

"Hi Miss Belarus!" Seychelles waved cheerily. The blond nodded briefly in greeting.

Hungary sent her a welcoming smile. "It's just a sleepover. You know, like the ones us girls have every year before Christmas."

"Only with people from our school," Vietnam chipped in. "We figured it wouldn't do any harm to humor the girls who invited us."

"Why _did_ they invite you?" Belarus asked, blue eyes narrowing slightly. "They don't even know you, right? You just met that one girl in the hallway." Personally, Belarus had found the school idea interesting, but didn't go because Russia hadn't. If her brother Russia didn't go somewhere, she didn't go either. That said, she secretly looking forward to this 'sleepover' idea.

Not that she would ever admit to that.

"That's what I said," Vietnam nodded, "why invite girls you don't even know to your house?"

"It could be that they just wanted to get to know us because we're foreign transfers," Liechtenstein pondered, arms linked with Seychelles as the girls walked to the address Mary Elisabeth McColloch had given them. It turned out that her house was within walking distance of America's, though it was a fairly long walk.

"That seems like it would be too easy, but I bet you that's exactly what it is." Hungary grinned. "Well, we'll just see when we get there, won't we?"

"How are you going to explain me?" Belarus brushed a lock of pale hair over her shoulder. "After all, nobody would have seen me at the school. It'll look weird for you to show up with some other girl."

It was Seychelles who suggested, "We could say you're a transfer to another school in the district. I heard that all the local schools have the same kind of exchange program."

"Great!" Hungary clapped her hands. "Honestly, I think this is going to be fun."

"Or at least very interesting," Vietnam agreed.

They spent the rest of the walk in amiable silence, until they reached the house that was on the slip of paper in Hungary's hand.

"This must be it," she said, checking the address. "It matches."

"There are a lot of cars lined up," Liechtenstein commented, looking up and down the street. "I wonder how many people are here."

"Well," Belarus said, straightening her dress, "We're about to find out."

**A/N:**

**This chapter is very obviously filler. It's filler because I wanted to have the sleepover to be a long, magic chapter ten. And also I'm uncreative today and I always write late at night when I'm sleepy.**

**Anyway. There will be no genderbending of China, as everyone was very much opposed to the idea XD Honestly I think I would have been too lazy to do it even if the reaction had been positive. I started a fem!China story to make up for it, anyway.**

**Also, Belarus is here! For a short time, just for the sleepover. I needed her. she's too much fun. Belarus brings all the girls to the yard.**

**I enjoy reading the predictions about Mary Elisabeth's true intentions. You shall see...next chapter! Thanks for reading and please review!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Very stereotypical slumber party, coming right up.**

**xXx**

Mary Elisabeth greeted them at the door with a bright smile, excitedly brushing her long auburn bangs out of her face. They stepped in and looked around, taking in the bright environment curiously. It was a nice, big house with a lot of space, three stories, and looked like a true home. Past the entryway was a spacious living room, where a large television was set up, along with a plethora of sleeping bags and food. Lots of food. Seychelles moaned hungrily when she spotted a bowl of dried mangoes.

"Everyone else is downstairs right now, in the entertainment room," Mary Elisabeth explained, "this is just where we're sleeping because it has the most room. Luckily for us, my parents decided to clear out and go to a spa. They said they'd rather not be kept up all night because of us."

"How many people are here?" Vietnam asked, staring at the mass of sleeping bags and pillows lying on the thick carpet.

Mary Elisabeth shrugged. "A lot of my friends, but that's pretty much it. I only invited people I know. I'm not much of a big party person." She led them down the stairs to the lower floor, where a large group of girls were gathered around the television. "Guys, the exchange kids are here! Come on, introduce yourselves."

The girls stood, smiling, and gave their names. Upon closer inspection, there weren't very many of them, around five or six. They introduced themselves as Hannah, Makenna, Tiffany, Angela, and Victoria. None of them seemed like the kind of girls to bully others, which immediately put the nations at ease.

"What are your names?" Tiffany asked, twirling one of her dark curls around her finger. "I don't think I've actually ever talked to you guys. Don't even know where you're from."

"I'm Elizabeta Héderváry," Hungary replied. "I'm from Hungary."

They followed down the line with "Lien Lu'o'ng, Vietnam," "Lilli Zwingli, Liechtenstein," "Michelle King, Seychelles," which was followed by a brief explanation of where the island of Seychelles actually was, until the end when everyone's attention turned to Belarus.

"Do you go to our school?" Angela frowned in confusion, but her expression brightened after a moment and she held out her hand to the blonde. "Oh well. What's your name?"

"Natalia Arlovskaya," Belarus said coolly, crossing her arms to avoid physical contact. "I'm from Belarus, and I don't expect you to know where that is. I transferred to another school in the district."

If the other girls were put off by Belarus' cold demeanor, they didn't show it, and instead widened their circle to include the transfers in. It turned out they were watching some American cartoons, and by the looks of it, were immensely enjoying watching Finn beat the tar out of the Ice King.

Liechtenstein leaned into Seychelles and whispered, "This is fun. It reminds me of when we have the all-girl get-together around Christmas."

Seychelles grinned. "Yeah, no kidding. Only normally we have Portugal, Ukraine, Belgium, Taiwan, Wy, and New Zealand with us too."

Liechtenstein nodded. "I like that."

"Hey guys, you wanna move upstairs?" Mary Elisabeth asked, "It's getting kind of late, huh? We can watch TV and eat snacks or something."

The other girls nodded and the group filed upstairs. Looking out, the sky was darkening. It was later than the girls had thought; they had come over a few hours after school ended for the weekend, and as it was progressing further into the fall season the daylight hours were lessening.

The girl named Victoria, who had fine corn-silk hair, raised her hand. "What should we do? There's probably not anything good on TV at this point."

Makenna examined her fingernails. "Aren't we trying to give these transfer girls the 'American experience' or something? What's an American thing to?"

Ah. So that was the reasoning behind the sleepover. The nations exchanged a glance and silently agreed that they got enough of the 'American experience' at world meetings, but they weren't about to tell the humans that.

"Ummm..." Hannah, a ditzy girl with mousy hair and matching eyes that Vietnam recognized from her art class, rubbed the back of her head. "We could...play Truth or Dare..."

The nations froze. Once, at a meeting, America had decided to bring up Truth or Dare and an epic worldwide game began that had ended in England wearing a maid's outfit and being force-fed escargot, Australia doing the Macarena on the roof of the meeting building stark naked, Prussia running around the block singing Disco Pogo in Swahili, Denmark unconscious with a mustached troll-face drawn onto his chest, the Asians the doing the whole Gangnam Style dance, and all the micronations duct-taped to the ceiling. Even Germany got in on the action by putting on cat ears and bench-pressing a table that held the majority of Eastern Europe. The whole thing was filmed and put in the nations' "blackmail vault."

That...had not been a productive meeting.

Thus, the girls were not excited to try it again. If there was one thing to be learned from Truth or Dare, it was that anybody could be scarily creative when they wanted to be. Actually, a worldwide ban had been passed on the game and nobody was allowed to speak of it again.

"I don't know if that's a good idea," Liechtenstein said nervously.

Mary Elisabeth's face had lit up. "No, it's perfect! Let's do it, it'll be fun!"

"Yeah, let's get in a circle!" Angela's face held a disturbingly manic smile. Not in a position to argue, the rest of the girls followed her instructions and gathered in the center of the living room. "Okay, who wants to go first?"

Victoria raised her hand. "I'll do it." Her sharp grey eyes scanned the group, searching each girl for a weakness she could exploit. The nations shuddered; the last time they had seen that look, it was America getting ready to dare France to run out into the parking lot and write profanity on the British Prime Minister's car. Eventually, she stared hard at Hannah.

"Alright, Han. Truth or dare?"

"U-Uh... truth?"

"Is it true you were the one who put itching powder in the cheerleader uniforms last year?"

"W-What?" Hannah raised her hands defensively. "No, no, I know there were rumors going around about that but that one girl, Tessa, confessed to it, remember?"

"Oh right," Makenna said, nodding in comprehension. "It was because the head of the squad, Ellie, stole Tessa's boyfriend."

"That really happened?" Vietnam looked repulsed. Even by nation standards, getting that kind of revenge was just petty.

Mary Elisabeth nodded. "Yep, it was a mess. Anyway Hannah, it's your turn."

Hannah smoothed her hair and turned to Angela. "Truth or dare?"

"Dare me, baby."

"Oh man, I didn't plan out a dare..." Hannah though hard for a few minutes. "Uh, you know that Brett guy from Spanish? I dare you to text him like you're drunk."

Angela grinned wickedly and pulled out her cell phone. "You're lucky I have his number. Texting mode, initiated."

"You are a dork," Makenna told her.

The dares went on like that for a while, and the nations were relieved that they were able to sit back and just watch, diverting the questions they were asked for truth.

Until Seychelles decided to be brave.

"Dare," she responded with shaky confidence when Mary Elisabeth asked her the big question, ignoring the sound of Hungary slapping her forehead and mouthing, "Worldwide ban, remember?"

"This is going to be painful, I can tell," Vietnam said softly. Belarus and Liechtenstein nodded silently.

Mary Elisabeth looked at the island nation critically. "Hm. You look like a brave person, so this is going to be tough." She turned to the other transfers. "Hey, does Michelle have a crush?"

"You can't ask them that!" Seychelles shrieked, her face turning bright red. Mary Elisabeth just shrugged slightly.

"Sure I can. So spill it. Lilli, do you know?"

Liechtenstein caught the desperate look Seychelles sent her, and Belarus' amused smirk. Vietnam sighed and put her head in her hands, while Hungary had an "Oh, screw it, this'll be funny," expression on her face. She thought back to recently, when they had first started the school game. What had Seychelles been doing? Who was she with a lot of the time?"

She had her answer almost immediately, and silently apologized to Seychelles for what she was about to do. "Our friend, Im Yong Soo. I don't know about a crush, but she spends a lot of time with him."

Seychelles collapsed backwards and moaned, "Traitor. I'm not letting any of your people tour my island anymore."

"Yong Soo?" Mary Elisabeth recalled the name. "Oh, the Korean kid." She clapped her hands. "I have the perfect dare for this!"

"I hate you, Lilli," Seychelles sighed. "Let's get this over with..."

"Call him and ask him out."

The dark-haired girl bolted upright with a wild expression. "Are you insane?! I can't do that!"

"Yong Soo will understand," Vietnam smiled, secretly feeling amused about this situation. Korea was about to get a surprise.

"You got dared, so just do it," Belarus pointed out, looking bored.

Seychelles gulped and pulled out her cell phone with shaking hands. "A-Alright. I guess I have to..." She slowly input Korea's number and moved a ways away from the group, waiting while it rang.

"_Yubseyo?"_ she heard him greet, cheerful as always.

"Uh, Yong Soo?"

"Chelles? Aren't you at that sleepover thing, da ze?"

"Yeah, I am..." she tugged at her collar; it was suddenly uncomfortably hot in the room. "I wanted to ask, if you, um...wanted to do something with me sometime?"

There was a long silence on the other line.

"You got dared, didn't you?

Seychelles started in surprise. "Huh?"

"Well, we aren't supposed to play that game, da ze, but if you got dared I guess I can understand it." Korea started laughing. "Hey, if it makes you feel any better, I say yes. Your breasts are mine, da ze!"

He hung up without another word, leaving Seychelles sitting in stunned silence. She turned back to the group. "What just happened?"

Vietnam grinned. "Did he say yes?"

"Yeah, I guess?"

"That's good, then!" Makenna giggled. "Mary Elisabeth McColloch, hooking up freshmen since 2012."

"It's a talent," Mary Elisabeth said flippantly, eyes sparkling. "Alright Michelle, it's your turn now. Let's—"

She was interrupted by the front door slamming open, and a sickeningly familiar voice—to Liechtenstein, anyway—calling "I'm home!"

Amanda from homeroom stepped into the room, and her eyes widened when she saw the mess on the floor. "What's going on?"

Then she saw Liechtenstein, and her expression turned furious. "What are _you _doing here?!"

Mary Elisabeth jumped up with a smile that was copied by her friends. "Have you met Lilli already, Mandy?" She turned to the nations. "This is my little sister Amanda. She's been at a movie with some of her friends, but I guess she's home now."

Amanda pointed an accusing finger. "Why are they here?"

"We're having a sleepover," Belarus said coolly, having heard the stories about the red-haired girl. "Did you not get the memo?"

The other suddenly hoped, as much as they disliked Amanda, that Belarus had left her knife at home where it belonged.

"Apparently not." Amanda crossed her arms. "Mary, you didn't tell me anything about this."

Looking hurt, her older sister said, "I didn't think you would have a problem with it. Did something bad happen, or something?"

"We didn't do anything," Seychelles replied hotly. "All we've ever done is mind our own business."

"Whatever." Amanda threw her arms up in defeat. "I'm going to my room. Don't bother me."

"Why would we want to?" Hungary muttered. The group of nations sighed. The night suddenly seemed to be stretching on a lot longer.

**A/N:**

**I created Korea/Seychelles. Ship it, bitches.**

**You guys all thought Mary Elisabeth was up to something. Nooo, her sister is just Amanda.**

**I pulled one over on you~ That, my dears, is a weak attempt at trolling.**

**Thanks for reading and please review!**


	11. Chapter 11

China did not appreciate waking up to the sound of arguing, especially when said argument was between America and England. Their bickering tended to be extremely loud and obnoxious, and most people tended to vacate the premises when they got going. However, what with everyone sharing the same house, nobody had anywhere else to go. Besides, it was early, like nine in the morning on a weekend. After the chaos of the first week of school, everybody was tired.

Except, it seemed, an annoying American and his estranged older brother.

China groaned and plugged his ears to block the noise as the loud voices drifted up the stairs, even all the way to the third floor where his room was. The girls were still at the sleepover, and the house had seemed fairly empty during the night without Prussia and Hungary's ritual wrestling matches. Maybe America and England had the same feeling and felt the need to fill the space with some kind of noise that irritated everyone just as much. One thing was for sure, a house that held Prussia, America, Denmark, and Korea together did not make for much peace and quiet.

Figuring that he wasn't going to get any more sleep, and that someone needed to head downstairs and shut the two up, China pulled himself out of bed and got dressed, not bothering to tie his hair back. It was too early for that. He trudged down the stairs and into the kitchen, where America and England had planted themselves, yelling over Romano, who was passed out at the table.

"Shut up!" China hollered over them, and to his surprise, the blondes actually quieted. "What is your issue so early, aru?! You are annoying!"

America pointed at England accusingly. "It's his fault! He's the one who started making a big deal out of nothing!"

"Wha— I wouldn't be getting mad if you hadn't done something so idiotic, you arse!" England replied hotly, throwing his arms up in exasperation.

China suddenly felt like a babysitter.

He sighed, "What happened, aru?"

"All I did was get us a car, and all of a sudden Artie is flipping his shit." America gestured for the Chinese to follow and, England coming along grudgingly, led him out the front door.

China raised his eyebrows. "That is a minivan, aru. You are arguing over a minivan."

"It's a big minivan!" America grinned with excitement. "A really big one! There are a lot of seats so we can all fit in if we want to go places!"

"That is the issue." Next to China, England crossed his arms. "You bloody git; we're supposed to be staying inconspicuous. There is nothing _inconspicuous _about this van or how you obtained it."

"How did he obtain it, aru?" China rolled his eyes. "Steal it?"

"Uh..." America looked sheepish. "I might have had the secret service drive it over for me."

"And therein lays the problem." England motioned grandly to the van. "Apparently the US secret service has vans like these that are large enough to fit the president, the president's family, and all their bodyguards for safe and easy transport in the case of an emergency. It's supposedly missile-proof and used for undercover operations where the transportation has to be on the down-low."

"Yeah_, I_ told you all that, genius." America stuck his tongue out at the Brit before turning to China, "Isn't it awesome?"

"And the secret service just drove it over, aru?"

He had gotten out of bed for this?

"Yep." The American just nodded like an excited child. "I said I needed one and they brought it right over. I don't know if you know this, but I'm a pretty big deal around here. If I need a van, they bring me a van. I was thinking we could all go to McDonald's and then go pick up the girls."

England and China simultaneously grimaced.

"This is why you shouldn't think."

"You want us to eat there?"

"I refuse."

They got a pathetic pout in reply. "I swear, you two act like you're dating. Fine. But just so you know, Romano, Spain, and Prussia had a contest last night to see who could eat the most. Romano won, and all the food is gone."

And that is how seventeen nations ended up crammed into the secret service minivan America had dubbed "The Batmobile," on their way to the greasy fast-food restaurant to get Egg McMuffins.

"I'd rather eat the sod from the backyard," was what Norway had said, before being dragged along by Denmark. Not many of the others seemed very enthusiastic about the situation, a good many voicing their complaints about the selection of an eating establishment, all of said complaints ignored by the American driving the car. He pulled into the McDonald's drive-thru, asking if anyone else wanted anything before he ordered.

There was a unanimous, "No!"

America ended up buying enough to feed the world anyway.

China, who was squished uncomfortably between Italy and Finland, said "Can we hurry so we can get out of this stupid car, aru?"

America frowned at him via the rear-view mirror. "Calm your jets, man, this car is awesome."

"Maybe to a twelve-year-old," Hong Kong muttered, shifting in his seat.

"Whatever, Hong. Hey, someone tell me where the girls are staying so we can go get them."

"The girls are within walking distance of the house," Switzerland pointed out sardonically. He was in an even worse mood than usual. "I assume you remember the many talks we've had about global warming? We shouldn't waste gas by driving all the way there when they can walk themselves."

"Actually, we do need to get them, I have the house key." America turned and waved the key around, getting a loud "Keep your eyes on the road, bastard!" from Romano.

Eventually they did manage to make to the girls' place without crashing or anyone dying of suffocation, which China considered a miracle. Prussia grabbed the nation nearest him (Latvia) and dragged him out of the van and up the steps to the front door, knocking exuberantly. The door opened and he was greeted with a spectacular double-punch to the face and gut, courtesy of Hungary and Belarus. Latvia jumped and tripped down the stairs in surprise when it happened.

The girls filed out of the house, each looking frazzled and exhausted. They looked surprised when they saw the massive van, but shrugged it off and climbed inside, squeezing in tightly.

Seychelles blinked and looked around. "Where did this come from?"

"American secret service," Korea answered, grinning at her. Seychelles caught his eye and turned bright red, hurriedly hiding her face.

_Wonder what that's about_, China thought to himself, and made a mental note to ask his brother about it later.

"So what did you guys do last night?" Denmark asked the girls, who paled and looked nervous.

"Not much..." Hungary coughed into her hand. "What about all of you?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Spain said, looking depressed. "Ask Lovi."

"Talk to me, and I will rip your head off,_ cagna_."

Hungary grimaced. "No need to get catty, Romano. I'm not going to ask."

The nations sat in angry silence for the rest of the car ride, none of them in a particularly good mood. A few times, some like Finland or America would try to start a conversation, efforts when that died quickly as soon as it became apparent that nobody wanted to participate.

When they finally neared America's house, Liechtenstein, who was nearest the window, said, "Who's that sitting on the front step? It looks like..."

Prussia leaned forward with a laugh. "Oh, no way."

"What? Who—" Hungary leaned forward to get a better look, and her expression instantly turned into one of pure fury. _"No."_

America parked and everyone climbed out of the car, moving to the front door where a familiar dark blonde figure was sitting with a mischievous, sharp-toothed smile.

"_Bun__ă__ ziua~!"_

Hungary hissed. "What the hell are _you_ doing here?!"

**A/N:**

**Guess who it is! :D**

**That's all I have to say. I really like how this chapter turned for reading and please review!**


	12. Chapter 12

To say Hungary was pissed was a total understatement. The other nations half-expected her to start foaming at the mouth when Romania sent her an infuriatingly smug smirk and greeted everyone else cheerfully.

"I am going to ask you one last time, bastard," she snarled, sending a withering glare down to the blonde still sitting casually on the doorstep, "What are you doing here?"

Romania grinned, then stood and brushed himself off. "I thought it would be obvious why I'm here. I want to do the school game with you guys."

"No! You're not allowed to!"

Romania ignored her and turned to America. "I'm not too late, am I? If I'm right you have only done two days so far, yes?"

America blinked. "Um, right, but how come you didn't sign up on the very first day? I mean, how come you're only coming now?"

"Bulgaria didn't want to," Romania shrugged. "It took me a couple days but I figured I could come without him. I thought it might be too boring if he wasn't here, but to hell with it. So, here I am, sucking it up!" He held out a slip of paper. "Look, I already signed myself up and everything. There isn't any problem, right?"

"Nope, guess not." America grinned at him. "Welcome aboard!"

Hungary swore and kicked at a flower pot while Prussia burst into laughter.

America unlocked the door to the house and the other nations, who had been watching the spectacle with interest, scattered and went off to their own devices, with the exception of England who stuck around to talk to the new arrival.

"So you're going to be here from now on?" The Brit leaned against the wall and crossed his arms, eying Romania critically.

"Yep." Romania gave him an innocent look. "Trust me; I'll keep out of the way of your spell-casting. It's not my type, anyway."

England gritted his teeth. Romania had an uncanny ability to predict what people were thinking or about to say, and he'd hit the nail right on the head. That, along with his love of nightmare fuel and vampiric demeanor and troublingly innocent behavior, made him one of the creepiest nations out there. He didn't top Russia and Belarus, but he was at least in the top five.

"Good," he grunted finally, "Keep your black magic out of my way. You always interfere with what I'm doing when we're in the same area."

"Eh, calm down." Romania waved a hand dismissively and headed towards the stairs. "I don't want to do a lot of casting when I'm sharing a house with a ton of people anyway."

"And no summoning Dracula to scare America like you did at the last world meeting!"

**xXx**

The rest of the weekend passed by peacefully, or as peacefully as it could considering whom we're talking about. Thus, the new school week began.

America insisted Monday morning that they all take the Batmobile to school rather than walk, and was put into a sulking depression when there was a unanimous refusal. Not only were most of them concerned about global warming and the environment, but the damn van was horribly uncomfortable and the addition of Romania would only serve to make it worse. Not to mention America's driving was terrifying.

Romania himself walked a good distance away from Hungary (to everyone's surprise the two enemies had treated each other to a cold and stony silence) but that seemed to irritate her just as much as him walking directly behind her and poking her in the side would. His very presence set her off, and Hungary was incredibly on edge the whole morning.

They arrived at school and split into their homeroom groups, Romania following America, Canada, Japan, and Norway and Denmark into their already-full class.

"Brace yourself dude," America whispered to him, "This teacher lady is insane."

"Hm? How so?"

The others gave him a pitiful look.

"You really do not want to know," Denmark replied, while Japan coughed awkwardly.

"Our own introductions were not fun," the Asian said, turning away. "I would rather not watch this." With that, he sat in his seat and pulled out a book, obviously intending to drown the foreboding encounter out.

Almost on cue, Delacour burst into the room dramatically. "Greetings, children! We have another foreign soul in this room today!"

"...What." Romania gaped, completely floored. He heard America snicker behind him.

Delacour strode up to the blonde, greeting him with a deep bow. "Greetings, young one. Who might you be?"

"...Vladimir Lazarovici...from Romania..."

Once he got over the initial shock of meeting the woman for the first time, he realized he could have a lot of fun with this. Romania grinned mischievously. "You seem so excited about it, ma'am, how much have you heard about my country?"

Delacour paused for moment. She clearly wasn't used to being on the receiving end of that question. "I have great knowledge of Romania, and I am positive it is a grand and fascinating country with an expansive culture."

"Yep!" Romania nodded. "We're the home of Dracula and have a history of ritual impalement."

"...Eh?"

Romania's eyes widened in false surprise. "Vlad the Impaler? The greatest leader we ever had? I thought you would know that, what with your great knowledge of the world and all... I'm named after him, you know."

"I-I... I see..."

Romania gave her a wicked grin and the class leaned in with rapt attention. "I can tell you all about it..."

Thirty minutes later, the new student was sent to the principal's office for giving a detailed and bloody description of the complete life of Vlad the Impaler and reducing Mrs. Delacour to tears.

**A/N:**

**I love Romania. I loved him since he scared the ever-loving shit out of Bulgaria with Vlad the Impaler during the 2011 Bloodbath. I love Vlad the Impaler too, but the story, not the person. Impaling is scary. Dracula is named after Vlad the Impaler.**

**Right. Thanks for reading and please review!**


	13. Chapter 13

America wasn't good at a lot of things, but sports were something that came naturally to him. He and England had been stuck together for P.E. class, much to the Brit's chagrin, and at the moment the class was playing a game of basketball. England sucked, in America's honest opinion, but he himself was playing pretty awesomely. The American had possession of the ball for majority of the game, the other times being when he passed the orange ball or when England lost it to the opposing team, frustrating everyone. However, as England himself pointed out, a good majority of the class didn't play well either. At least America was on his team and could make up the difference.

The ball was chucked over in England's direction and the Brit managed to catch it. He glanced around, his only option being to shoot for the hoop or pass it to America who was flailing from across the court. England clumsily passed it over, inwardly cursing. This whole thing was ridiculous.

America scored again, and was about to pass the ball to a member of the other team when the teacher blew his whistle. Startled, the class watched as the ball slipped out of America's grasp, flew halfway across the court, and smacked a boy in the face. The boy's hands flew to his face, holding his eyes, stumbling backwards as he did so. Everyone's attention went from the boy to the American.

"Oh, hell," America exclaimed rushing up to him. "Dude, I'm so sorry, it was a total accident."

The student blinked, muttering, "Yeah, it's fine." He removed his hand asking, "Is my eye okay?"

"Looks kinda red. You might wanna get that checked, bro."

"Class is just about over," the teacher said, "So change and go down to the nurse, okay?"

The kid nodded and headed down to the locker rooms.

Turning to America, the teacher said, "Alfred, could you come to my office once class gets out?"

He blinked. "Uh, sure."

The teacher nodded once and dismissed the others. America looked at England with a panicked expression. "Shit, I'm in trouble!"

"Just explain to him that it was an accident." England replied, beginning to leave.

"Wait, you're leaving?"

"Well, yes. I have to meet China and get to English."

"Duuuude! Can't you just wait for me?"

"No."

"Well, fine, whatever. You're not invited to my next party."

"That's alright with me." England rolled his eyes and headed off to the locker rooms. America sighed heavily and turned in the direction of the gym teacher's office.

He turned the doorknob and peeked inside, seeing the teacher seated at his desk. The man looked up and gestured for the American to come inside and take a seat. America did so and cleared his throat nervously. "Uh, hey sir, it was totally an accident what happened just now..."

The teacher gave him a stare that made America feel extremely uncomfortable. It was the stare the President always gave him when America was about to receive a lecture.

He took a deep breath, bracing himself. The teacher leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms, "Alfred..."

"Uhhh, yeah?"

"That's not why I called you down here."

"...huh?"

The teacher leaned forward, a small smile playing on his lips. "You're pretty good at basketball, aren't you?"

Surprised, America replied, "I guess so."

"You should join the team."

"Wait, what?"

The teacher leaned back. "I'm the coach of the school team here. I think you should join up."

"Okay then..."

"So will you?" The teacher grinned, "you're exactly who I need on my team. I haven't seen someone this good in years!"

That might be because America had been playing the sport for decades, but he wasn't about to say that. Instead he replied, "Yeah, sure! That sounds great!"

"We have a practice after school today, come to that, alright?"

"Will do, sir!"

With a final salute, America stood and hurried out of the office.

**xXx**

The two former Axis Powers, Italy and Japan, walked down the halls of the school, on their way to their next class, Spanish. That day they were having a test and the Japanese man wasn't comfortable with the content yet.

Italy, however, was bubbly and confident with the material, skipping up ahead of Japan. Well, it made sense, considering they were in Spanish class together. Of course Italy would be good at it. Japan personally had been assigned that class, rather than having chosen it for himself, and had been struggling. However, he refused to shamefully fail at anything in this school, so kept at it rather than transfer out.

"Kiku! Kiku!"

The man glanced up to see Italy standing in front of him, grinning."What is it, Feliciano-san?"

"Are you ready for the test?!"

"Yes. I suppose so."

"Great! Good luck, then!"

And with that Italy ran inside the classroom, full of energy. Japan trailed behind, his confidence dwindling. Well, if Italy of all people could take a test with confidence, he could too, right? He sat down in his seat and prepared for the exam. He took out his pencils, making sure they were sharpened then took out his eraser in case he made a mistake. His eyes darted to Italy who was chatting with a few girls.

Of course.

Japan sighed softly and waited for the teacher to come in. He wanted to get this over with.  
The teacher entered the classroom within a few minutes, the exam papers in hand, explaining the exam briefly before passing them out.

After that, the test started. Japan bent over his paper, brow furrowed in concentration.

He bit his lip. The paper was asking to conjugate and include the Spanish verb to _'to speak.'_What was that again?

He was struggling on the first problem... this was not looking good for him.

Was it _hablar_ or _tener?_It must be hablar... he quickly scratched the answer down.

Now, conjugating.

He somehow managed his way through conjugating the word _'hablar.' _The rest of the test was a bit more difficult. Halfway through his own, Japan glanced over and saw Italy sleeping with his head in his arms. He was done already?! But how?!

He returned his focus to his test, frowning at the paper. This language was difficult for him. It had taken him years to learn to speak English properly, what had made him think that Spanish would be any easier?

Japan mentally shook himself. There would be no giving up. He pressed his pencil down onto the paper and continued on his way. He needed to succeed, he needed to finish.

The bell rang.

With a groan, Japan slumped down in his chair. He'd finished just in time. He handed his paper to the teacher and stood apprehensively as she scanned it, marking errors. He was wringing his hands by the time she told them his score. He paled as soon as he heard it. A 'C' was average though, right? It wasn't that bad. Japan could deal with that, he supposed. Though Japan really had to wonder why he cared. Going to school in the first place was just a game, and grades didn't matter to the nations at all unless they wanted to win, and Japan didn't mind either way. It must just be his nature acting up. He had to excel at everything, no matter how insignificant. It was a matter of pride.

He turned and began to walk out of the classroom, Italy catching up with him on the way.

"I got an A, Kiku!" the Italian was excited.

An... A?

Italy grinned happily and showed the Japanese his paper. "I can't wait to tell Germany! Do you think he'll be happy?"

"I'm sure he will be," Japan murmured, stiffening.

"What did you get?!" Italy asked as they walked.

"Ah..." Japan hesitated, unsure whether to tell the Italian or not. Italy, however, now seemed unconcerned.

"Oh well. It's Japan and Japan always does well on everything, ve~"

Japan wished he could agree.

He was far too old for this.

**A/N:**

**Lolo helped me write this again! Because I can't do anything on my own. She's the one who did the Spanish, because I don't know a word of Spanish. The one word I know is "Puta." If you don't know what it means, look it up, and laugh at me.**

**I also don't know how basketball works -_- At least not the details.**

**Oh well. **

**Guys, can we get to 100 reviews with this chapter? I hope so~ Oh, and I started a Maximum Ride/Vocaloid crossover, as well as a standalone Vocaloid fic. If you're interested, it would mean a lot if you guys could go check them out!**

**Thanks for reading and please review!**


	14. Chapter 14

Hong Kong left his classroom feeling more bored than he had when he walked in. He really had no idea why he'd signed up for thing. Maybe it was the fact that going to a school would be more entertaining than spending six months lying on the floor glued to his DS. Yeah, that was it...

He'd just gotten out of math class, which he considered pointless, and now there was only one more period until school was out, American History.

Which was even more pointless, considering.

With a light sigh, he headed to the main staircase. The social studies hallway was on the lower floor of the school, in an area that could properly be called a basement. The art hallway was down there too, while math, science, English, and foreign languages were on the upper floors. It was easy to see how the school ordered their priorities.

Hong Kong's American History classroom was fairly large, but uncomfortably cold and had more students than it should. The kids there were noisy and all seemed to know each other, and the few people who were left out of the social loop lingered near the walls, remaining silent. That was Hong Kong's preferred style of socialization, so as per usual, he took a seat in a far corner, away from any curious people who might try to talk to him.

The position gave him a good vantage point with which to view the rest of the room, and Hong Kong decided to pass the time doing what he usually did at world meetings: people watching. He was fairly observant, and picked up quite a lot of information just by sitting and staring nonchalantly. He'd long mastered the skill of making it seem like he wasn't paying attention to anyone. Maybe it was a creepy skill, but Hong Kong couldn't find himself caring.

Most of the information he picked up was totally useless. Tyrone was cheating on Laura with Jessica, the finale of some T.V. show, what girls were wearing to homecoming. Hong Kong stifled a yawn and wondered if falling asleep before class started was a more productive way to spend his time.

He'd dropped his chin into his palm and closed his eyes, attempting to block out all sound. Well, that seemed to be pretty impossible, because the kids around him didn't seem to know when to shut up. He glanced up at the clock; two minutes till the bell, then class would begin and the room would be filled with the buzzing of air passing through the students' ears and the sound would be marvelous.

Hong Kong was about to drop off when the subtle sounds of a whispered conversation caught his attention. He opened his eyes and glanced to his right, eyeing a group of girls wearing that gossipy look on their faces.

"Did you see how she's wearing her hair today?" one whispered, covering her smile with her hand, muffling a snicker.

"Seriously, she's been in America this long and she hasn't dropped the lame looks? Seriously."

Hong Kong's eyes narrowed. If they were talking about one of the girl nations...

After listening a bit more, he found that didn't seem to be the case. They were talking about a different girl, one he hadn't heard of. However, the name did strike a chord with him. He caught the name and a very vague backstory, Mingxia Chang. So she was Chinese, then, and apparently she'd been in America for a year.

Hong Kong frowned a bit. If she'd come from China, then it would make sense for her to not speak English that well. Hell, China himself, who was over four thousand years old, still had some trouble with the language. Hong Kong had learnt it well during the years he'd spent with England, so didn't have that big of an issue, but he understood how it would be problematic for others. He scanned the room, but it seemed Mingxia wasn't in the class. Maybe he'd keep an eye out for her.

The bell rang then, and the room settled down considerably. Grateful, Hong Kong decided to put the girl out of his mind and just try to entertain himself for another class. Just another fifty minutes, and then he would get to leave...

**xXx**

Yeah, he was wrong about leaving quickly.

American History passed incredibly slowly, and when the bell rang for the final time, all of Hong Kong's joints were stiff and popped when he began to move. He stretched a bit before standing and heading to the locker he had been assigned, not bothering to grab any books—like he wanted to carry them back to the house? He'd get Korea to share with him—and moved towards the stairs. After wading through crowds of students rushing to get out of the building, Hong Kong managed to push his way out the front doors and get to the flagpoles, where the nations usually met up.

America had announced that day at lunch that he had been scouted for the basketball team, which was somehow a surprise yet was expected by everyone. Nobody had been very interested when he'd started rambling about it. Now, Hong Kong noticed as he approached the group, it was all anyone seemed to be talking about, though they did seem fairly unhappy.

"Idiot," he heard England sigh. "He should think about things more..."

"Tell me something new, aru," China grumbled. "What do we do?"

Hong Kong approached his brother. "What's going on?"

Korea pouted and answered for his elder. "America has the one key to the house, and he's in basketball practice and the door to the locker room is locked, da ze."

"Well, we could just break in," Denmark suggested. "It's America's house, he can pay for a broken window or something."

Hong Kong raised an eyebrow. "Doesn't anyone know how to, like, pick a lock?"

Silence.

"...I'll be right back."

With that, the Chinese teen turned on his heel and walked back inside, enjoying the now nearly-empty hallways. This place wasn't so bad when it wasn't swarming with idiots. He turned the corner to the locker rooms and went down the stairs, skipping the last few, and paused at the solid door to the room. Checking the handle, Hong Kong found it was indeed locked, but he made it a habit to come prepared for these situations. He pulled a hairpin out of his pocket and within moments the door had swung open, allowing him access. He wrinkled his nose as he stepped in; it smelled horrible.

Hong Kong located America's pants lying in a heap on the tiled floor. He bent over and began rifling through the pockets, marveling at how much junk the American managed to cram onto his person.

He froze when he heard footsteps coming down the stairs, but breathed a sigh of relief as he heard a familiar, obnoxious voice call, "Just a sec, coach, I need to put my stuff away like you said."

America stepped into the locker room and stopped cold, eyes wide as he noticed Hong Kong holding his jeans, one hand still stuck in the front pocket.

"...What's up, dude?"

There was a beat of silence, then Hong Kong pulled out the house key and jingled it. "Nothing much. Just robbing you."

He tossed America his pants and brushed past him to the stairs, feeling a slight twinge of smug satisfaction as he noticed the completely confused look on the blonde's face.

**A/N:**

** Hong Kong, guys. HONG. KONG.**

** I've been struggling a bit with this story... I've run out of ideas, so I haven't been properly motivated. If you guys have any suggestions, I would really appreciate it!**

** Right, I was hoping last chapter we would get to a hundred reviews...needless to say, I was a bit disappointed. That's okay, this chapter will make up for it!**

** Thanks for reading!**


	15. Chapter 15

Everyone was fairly impressed by Hong Kong's lockpicking abilities, though England had to wonder where the Chinese had learned the skill. He certainly hadn't taught him that. He eyed China and Korea suspiciously and caught them exchanging a nervous glance as their younger brother opened the door to America's house. England shook his head and stepped inside with the others.

The nations fanned out and went off to their own devices. Feeling a bit hungry, England headed into the kitchen to find something to eat. It would be a while before China or someone started cooking dinner, so he only needed something to tide him over until then. He would cook dinner himself, but for some reason everybody found excuses to not eat when he did so. England frowned as he scanned the room, eyebrows furrowing as he eyed a note taped to the refrigerator, blazoned with large purple writing. He leaned in to read,

_"This is my...jam," I whisper with wide eyes, clutching the jar of jam to my chest. "This is my jam. They will never have my jam."_

...Alright. Who had put that there? England flipped the note over, seeing more writing on the back of the small sheet of paper.

It was a note from Latvia, stating he knew the jam bit would get people's attention, and that he was bowing out of the school game due to disinterest. Well, getting the needed attention had worked. England knew he was going to have a good laugh about that later. He shrugged and set the note on the kitchen table before opening the refrigerator to find food, and a quarter of an hour later was comfortable in his room.

America came home late that night, waking up half the house by throwing the front door wide open and thundering up the stairs, footsteps coming increasingly closer to England's room.

_Come in here and I will kill you, come in here and I will—_

The Brit's bedroom door flew open.

"...Fuck."

"England! Dude, what are you doing?"

The light switched on and England forced himself to swallow the various profanities that rose up in the back of his throat. "Well, I was sleeping, but then you came in."

"Oh, cool." America flashed the thumbs up. "You really are old, you know? It's only like, eleven thirty. Jeez."

England sat up and threw a book at his estranged brother's head, which the American easily dodged. He scowled and crossed his arms.

"What the bloody hell do you want? For starters, most people are in bed before this time, and second, if you don't explain yourself in exactly three seconds I will cheerfully rip your head off and serve it to the queen."

Not dissuaded by the threat, America grinned and leaned against the wall. "So I got done with basketball practice, right? And I was talking to some of the guys on the team and one of them has a band. I went over to his house and his guys are actually pretty good."

"And what does that have to do with the reason you woke me up so rudely?" England deadpanned, wishing more than anything that a trapdoor would open and swallow America up.

"Just listen! They're good and all, but the guy, Cameron, said that they were looking for a bass player. Apparently bass players are hard to come by, I don't know." America rolled his eyes. "But I said, hey, I know a guy who can play bass. And then I came home, because I do." He raised his eyebrows. "You see where this is going, bro?"

"Shut up and get out."

America's face fell into a desolate pout. "Come ooon! I know you can do it, because you're British and good at that or something! Help me out, please!"

England sighed heavily. "And what do you get out of me doing this?"

"...I get to update my status on Facebook saying I know you?"

"Again, get out."

Looking frustrated, America grumbled a bit before tossing a small wad of paper onto England's bed. "Fine. But in case you change your mind, here's Cam's number." He raised his voice, "SO PLAY THE FUNKY MUSIC RIGHT—"

He was silenced by China's wok coming flying out of nowhere and nailing him in the back of the head, accompanied by a "Shut up, aru!"

**xXx**

The next day proved very grating for a certain Nordic. Iceland, having been dragged into the school game by Denmark and Finland, really didn't care whether he won or lost. He only stayed in because Liechtenstein did, and he supposed it would be more entertaining than lying on the floor of his house for six months listening to his puffin try to rap. It wasn't so bad, he realized, as long as people left him alone and he didn't have to socialize more than he wanted. And Iceland really didn't want to socialize at all.

However, some of the boys in his class didn't see it that way. They'd been trying to prod him into saying more than a few words at a time for the past few days, but Iceland wasn't having it. They irritated him more than anything. Sometimes he wished he had a Sweden-esque death glare; that would get him left alone right away.

He sighed as he recognized one of the persistent boys walk through the door. They were in math class, which Iceland thankfully shared with Seychelles, though due to assigned seating they were a whole room apart. It was too bad; he would have liked if he didn't have to feel alone all the time.

The boy, one Iceland dimly remembered the name of—Jeremiah—smiled broadly and sauntered up to him, slinging an arm over his shoulder.

"Hey, what's up?"

Iceland didn't answer.

Just then, there seemed to be a distraction caused by a large newcomer Iceland hadn't seen before. Large didn't mean fat, large meant a tall, solid mass of muscle. It seemed everyone in class knew him, as some shrank back and others ran up to great him.

"Michael, you're back!"

"Dude, where have you been?"

"Finally showing up at school, huh?"

Iceland caught Seychelles' eye and smiled a bit wryly; she was gaping like a fish. He couldn't blame her. There probably hadn't been someone that large since Rome and Germania vanished.

The newcomer, Michael, waved off the attention. "School doesn't matter to me. I've just been bored so I decided to show up. What's been happening?"

Jeremiah laughed. "Bunch of new kids, bro. it's awesome."

"New kids?" Without him even being pointed out, Michael managed to find Iceland and zero in on him. "Is that one?"

"Yeah. Pretty sure his name's Ari or something."

The nation himself grimaced. Jeremiah had been harassing him constantly, how could he not even know his name at this point? Okay, it wasn't _really_ his name, but still. Some people. It wasn't like Iceland could go around telling anyone that.

With a look on his face Iceland instantly distrusted, Michael made his way to the desk where the nation sat, crossing his arms.

"So hey," he said, "What's your deal?"

As usual, Iceland remained silent, not moving his face from its fixed, bored expression. Michael's own twisted into a sneer.

"Say something, why don't you? What's up with you? You look weird. What's with your hair?"

Well, it was only a matter of time until someone pointed out his unusual hair color. And yet, the island really couldn't find himself caring.

"_Vera r__ó__legur, h__á__lfviti." _Iceland said flatly. Across the room, Seychelles snorted. She didn't speak Icelandic but she knew the meaning of the phrase, as Iceland used it on Denmark countless times.

Michael obviously didn't speak Icelandic either, but it seemed he could tell when an insult was directed at him. His face turned downright ugly and he put his hands on Iceland's desk, leaning forward menacingly.

"Better watch yourself, pretty boy. I've put retards in the hospital before."

Iceland just sighed and rolled his eyes to the ceiling, causing Michael's face to turn an unpleasant shade of purple.

"Whatever," he snapped, "Screw it. I'm outta here."

The class was dead silent as the large boy turned and strode out of the classroom, nearly bowling the teacher over as he went.

**A/N:**

**Headcanon: England can play guitar because British rock, fuck yeah. Plus that cover for his character CD that Himaruya drew.  
**

** If you look different, you will get picked on. Trust me, I had blue hair my entire freshman year of high school, and even now I have a different sense of style than the other 'normies.' I know what I'm talking about. The key is to just handle it the way Iceland did.**

** Except Michael is unpleasant. Oooh, ugly foreshadowing. Poor Iceland, you're my baby and I'm picking on you... I always need to pick on my favorites, and you are #1 on my list.**

** Well, Latvia's out. Sorry guys, I really can't fit him anywhere and sometimes I forget about him completely. Most of the time, actually. **

** Alright, thank you very much to Epic Hero Laugh for being the 100****th**** reviewer! Thanks to everyone else, too, I never thought this dumb little idea of a story would get as much attention as it did. If you guys have any ideas or suggestions, I would love to hear them!**

** Until next time!**


	16. Chapter 16

That Friday night, Seychelles was relaxing in her room reading a book when she heard a knock on her door. She called for the person on the other side to come in, and Korea sauntered across the threshold looking far too casual for it to be genuine.

"What's going on?" she asked, setting her book aside and stretching. Korea's smile faltered for a moment and he actually looking nervous as he cleared his throat.

"Ah, I wanna ask you something, da ze." He fumbled on the words a bit.

"Alright. Go for it."

Korea coughed slightly and turned a faint shade of pink. "You know when you were at that sleepover thing and you broke international law?"

Seychelles raised her eyebrows. "With Truth or Dare? Yeah..." As soon as she said the words, she immediately saw where this was going and paled.

The Korean was completely red now.

"Yeah. Uh, yeah, so, were you serious about...you know? Or was it just because of a dare?"

Seychelles smacked her hands to her face, wincing at the sudden sting but not removing them. "I-I asked on a dare, but I... I was serious..."

"This is the most awkward thing I've ever done, da ze."

The island nation mumbled an agreement.

Korea let out a heavy breath and plopped down next to her on the bed. "So, how about it? Now that I know you were serious, I can move on, da ze. Would you wanna follow through on that?"

Seychelles blinked. "So like...go on an actual...date-thing."

Korea nodded dumbly.

**xXx**

The next day, Korea and Seychelles swallowed their pride—the other nations in the house were showing them no mercy when it came to teasing—and headed out to try that...date-thing. It was beginning to get cold here in America, something Seychelles wasn't used to, and so the two of them were wearing light jackets and other assorted fall items. It was practically raining leaves outside, something she did enjoy. She imagined in her head what it would look like on her island, the palm trees changing from green to red and falling off...

Then she thought about one of those leaves smacking someone on the head as they fell, and banished the idea.

"So where do you wanna go?" Korea asked, looking embarrassed. Either he was bad at planning or he hadn't thought he would get this far.

Seychelles shrugged and stuffed her hands in her pockets. "I don't know. Want to just walk around a bit? Apparently there's a shopping center somewhere around here."

"Sure. That sounds good."

They walked in silence for a few agonizingly long minutes, before Seychelles spoke up again, "You know, it's funny."

"Hm? What is?"

She smiled. "Well, when I called you, you were all excited about it and agreed right away. But now, and yesterday, you were so nervous. I just think it's funny."

"W-Well, after I hung up and realized what had just happened..."

Seychelles giggled. "Did any of the others give you a hard time?"

Korea frowned childishly and crossed his arms. "Hong Kong was there. He didn't shut up, da ze. Iceland was there too but he didn't say anything. I don't think he cared much."

"Well, he and Liechtenstein are an item, right?" Seychelles reasoned, "So I bet other peoples' relationships don't matter much to him."

"Yeah, that makes sense, da ze," Korea nodded. "But Hong has Taiwan and still gave me crap!"

Seychelles waved a hand dismissively. "That's Hong Kong. He's a weirdo."

The two were quiet as they digested that statement, then burst into laughter.

The conversation flowed easily after that, once the two were more comfortable with the other's presence. They walked together for a long time before eventually deciding they were hungry, and Seychelles pointed out a food stand that she had noticed during the first hellish car ride in the Batmobile. They each bought some food, and then decided to head back to the house.

**xXx**

Korea did not expect to be kidnapped the minute he stepped through the door, but that's what happened. Much to his and Seychelles' surprise, the Asian nation was tackled to the ground, then hauled to his feet and dragged up the stairs, leaving a very confused island nation behind.

He was thrown into one of the upstairs rooms, and stumbled inside before turning to face who it was that had dragged him up here.

China, Hong Kong, and Vietnam.

Dammit.

"What?" he whined, leaning against the door.

"Tell us about it," Vietnam smirked. "How was your date?"

Korea turned to Hong Kong, aghast. "You told them, da ze?!" He gestured wildly to their older siblings, who both looked immensely amused.

Hong Kong just shrugged. "They wanted to know."

"That doesn't mean—"

"Shut it, aru," China snorted, "No need to be shy. We just want to know how it went."

"It's none of your business!" Korea stomped his foot childishly, making China roll his eyes and say something about how he was behaving just like he had a long time ago. "Butt out, Aniki! This isn't fair! We didn't get to tease you when you started with—"

"Don't even bring that up!" China shouted hastily, waving his hands defensively. "Besides, that was a long time ago, aru! It doesn't matter!"

Korea grinned and crossed his arms. "I'm sure Mr. England really sees it that way, da ze."

"You're dodging the question," Vietnam deadpanned as China turned bright red.

Her brother let out a huff of breath that blew his bangs upward. "You don't need to know anything. None. Of. Your. Business. Da ze."

China, Vietnam, and Hong Kong looked at each other for a second, before turning back to him with flat yet mischievous glints in their eyes.

"TICKLE HIM, ARU!"

The rest of the house never did find out where the screaming was all about.

**A/N:**

**This is my ship.**

**Leave me alone. **

**Okay I love the Asianation family so I had to put that part in. They're so damn cute. Also I ship IggyChu, is that obvious? I try to keep my OTPs out of this story, though, but I know a few of you have picked up on the IceLiech hints and of course this chapter is dedicated to Korea/Seychelles.**

**Because I created it. It's mine.**

**But yeah, you might have also noticed there was a teensy reference to Hong Kong/Taiwan. There isn't going to be any heavy romance at all though, just mentions here and there.**

**Thanks for reading, guys! I love you~**


	17. Chapter 17

Iceland's problem had gotten worse.

He was being regularly harassed by Michael and his friends, both in the hallways and in the few classes they shared. He didn't find it to be a particular problem, only one that was annoying at best. However, it was getting increasingly difficult to remain stoic-faced and emotionless when you were getting spitballs blown at the back of your head.

Iceland didn't tell anyone else what was transpiring; he didn't feel it was worth it. It wasn't such a bit deal that he needed people worrying over it, worrying over basically nothing. There was no point.

Liechtenstein did not see it that way. Iceland really had not planned on her finding out about this "bullying problem" but she had managed to get a glimpse of a hallway confrontation and became increasingly concerned.

"I still think you should tell Mr. Norway," she said sternly as the two of them sat in the school courtyard at lunch. The nations had begun to fan out for the lunch period, and the roof was hardly used by anyone anymore.

"Are you kidding? Norway is the very last person I'd want to tell." He rolled his violet eyes mockingly. "Please say that was a joke."

"Ari Sigurrosson," the German girl sighed dramatically, "please do not take that tone with me. He's your brother, he'd listen to you."

Iceland raised his eyebrows. "You're getting my brother mixed up with your brother. Though to be fair, one word to either of them about these kinds of things and the situation turns into war."

Liechtenstein frowned. "I just don't want this to become something serious...what if you get hurt? I would hate it if that happened."

"Trust me; the ones who think they're a big deal are only talk. They don't have the guts and willpower to go any further." Iceland paused and took a bite of his hákarl. "Think of Turkey and Greece. At each other's throats constantly, but all they ever do is yelling."

Iceland found himself eating his own words when he was shoved against a row of lockers later that day. He'd been intercepted as he was running late to class, and somehow managed to pass Michael and his group. Before he knew what had happed, Michael's rancid breath, smelling slightly of Russian vodka, was filling his senses.

**xXx**

Norway was not having fun. Like some others, he had only come to school because Denmark insisted upon it and he needed to keep an eye on the Dane anyway. Finland couldn't always be entrusted with the task of babysitting the large blonde. Really, only Norway and Sweden knew how to handle him when he got out of control.

Normally he liked the opportunity to be able to be in the same building as his brother, in a completely platonic and non-stalkerish way. Iceland always seemed to go out of his way to avoid Norway when they were within the same proximity. Norway knew he didn't like to admit that they were actually related, which stung a little, but he refused to let it show. It was much more fun annoying his younger sibling about the fact, especially in public.

"Whatcha thinking about, Norge?" Denmark asked casually as the two of them sat in math class, slinging an arm over the smaller nation's shoulder.

That was another downside about this school thing. Norway had almost every class with the one person he'd like to see vanish off the face of the earth.

"My thoughts are hardly any of your business," he said flatly, elbowing Denmark in the ribs in an attempt to get him to budge up and mind his own personal space. No such luck. The Dane was too heavy for his own good.

Denmark grinned, "Okay, that's good, cuz I need to go to the bathroom and I still have no idea where it is. Since it's like in-class work or whatever we can leave, right?"

Norway stared. "You need me to hold your hand and walk you to the bathroom."

"Well, we only have to do the hand-holding if you _really_ want to..."

Norway slapped the side of Denmark's hedgehog head. "Shut up. Go by yourself."

"But I don't know where it is!"

"Ask the teacher, then."

"That ruins my pride as a man."

"And asking me to walk you doesn't?"

"Come oooon. You should be flattered I'm asking you, considering how supremely awesome I am and everything."

"I need to stop letting you hang around Gilbert and Alfred."

"So is that a yes?"

Norway sighed heavily. "Will it get you to shut up?"

"Temporarily." Denmark flashed him a thumb's up.

Rubbing his eyes, Norway said, "Fine." He shrugged off Denmark's arm and stood up. "Hurry up, let's get this over with."

After getting the teacher's permission, the two Nordic nations stepped into the hallway. Denmark sent Norway a mischievous grin, "We can start holding hands now."

"Just walk, you idiot."

The two headed down the hallway and turned a corner, before Denmark stopped suddenly. "Hey...what's going on over there?"

Norway looked in the direction he was pointing. Down the hall a ways, there was a cluster of about four or five people surrounding...

"Iceland?"

As they watched, the largest of the group and the one who was apparently the leader stepped forward and grabbed the white-haired nation by his collar. Iceland didn't seem fazed at all, merely wearing the same bored expression he always did as he grabbed the large boy's wrist and attempted to push him away. Norway felt a flash of heat burn through his body. He knew Iceland could handle himself, but that didn't smother the protective streak that flared up whenever his brother was in trouble. His nails cut into the palms of his hands as Norway clenched his fists.

When he saw Iceland get slammed into the wall, all bets were off.

**xXx**

"Please don't make me say thank you," Iceland said later as the three were heading back to class. "I could have handled it."

"I know, but it's a familial instinct." Norway blandly combed his fingers through his mussed-up hair and passed another tissue to Denmark, who's nose was bleeding profusely. "Getting into fights for my brother is what I'm supposed to do."

"Norway. I'm not a little kid."

The Norwegian didn't answer and instead took pleasure in the image of Michael's face, the left eye bruised and swelling and the expression of pure terror as Norway threatened to end his life non-violently. It was Denmark who had done the punching, after Norway had gotten put into a headlock.

"I think it's been a pretty good day," Denmark said, his voice nasally from keeping it plugged.

"Whatever you say."

**A/N:**

**Boring chapter. Boooring chapter. But hey, it's an update. It's been like nine days! Sorry it's so late, I felt horrible when I saw how long it's been.**

**Thanks for reading and please review!**


	18. Chapter 18

Hong Kong did not often hunt up China on his own volition, nor did he usually drag the elder nation off down the hallway to an obscure area of the school that held beat-up lockers and not much else. Yep, this was definitely a new situation. School had been released for the day, and the moment the bell rung Hong Kong had rushed up to his brother and pulled him forcefully down the hall, despite the latter's protest that everyone else would wonder where they were.

"Aiyah! Hong, will you slow down, aru?"

Hong Kong halted suddenly, and China crashed into his back. It was at times like this that the elderly nation noticed painfully that his younger brother was a couple inches taller than him.

"Seriously, where are we going, aru?" he asked, rubbing his nose. "You aren't usually in such a rush, you know. What's the matter?"

"Sensei, remember those Chinese kids I told you about?"

"Vaguely. What about them?" Hong Kong had mentioned in passing conversing with a girl from China who seemed to be picked on a lot, but China couldn't recall the name and was honestly expecting the younger nation to drop the subject.

"We're going to help them out."

"Them? _We_?"

Hong Kong gave him an extremely frustrated look. "Yes, Sensei, we. And we like, don't have to do anything now. We're just going to talk to them for a minute."

"What exactly are we going to be doing, aru?"

"Teaching them English, I guess."

China stared. "Really, aru? You want me to teach people English?"

Hong Kong just sighed irritably, as teenagers are prone to doing, and motioned the Chinese forward. "Come on. All we're doing is like, talking to them. You'll see. Their lockers are down this way, I told them to wait for us."

Raising his eyebrows but falling silent, China followed his younger brother down around another corner. At the end, near one of the scarcely-used staircases, was a set of small lockers next to which stood a group of three Asian teenagers, two boys and a girl. The two nations paused a few feet away.

"Hey, I'm back. Sorry it took so long." Hong switched smoothly from English to Mandarin, a visible relief to the other teenagers. "Sensei here was being poky."

"Don't pin everything on me," China snapped, switching as well. "Just get on with explaining the situation, alright?"

"Fine." Hong Kong rolled his eyes sardonically and turned to the others. "Okay, so I guess you guys should like, introduce yourselves and say what your problem here is. By the way, I'm Hong Wang, in case you forgot, and this is my older brother Yao."

China nodded once in acknowledgement.

One of the boys stepped forward. "Uh...Hong, we said you don't have do anything..."

"And I said I wanted to. Just give up."

"...Alright..." the boy sighed. "My name is Jinhai Chang." Gesturing to the girl beside him, he added, "This is my younger sister."

"I'm Mingxia Chang," the girl said shyly. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

The final boy hesitated, before introducing himself as Nianzu Li.

"So what's the problem?" Hong Kong pressed.

"Well..." Jinhai bit his lip. "We move here from Beijing two years ago and started school, but our English has never been very good and we've had some problems adjusting. It's fine for our little siblings, because they're so young, but..."

"My story's essentially the same," Nianzu added. "I came last year because my father was transferred for his job."

"Basically, people here like to demean us because of how much trouble we're having." Jinhai's breath rushed out and he ran a hand through his hair. Next to him, Mingxia fiddled with the end of her long, dark braid.

"Right, I figured as much." Hong Kong nodded and turned to China, who was listening with a troubled look on his face. "So can we do anything? We know lots of English and stuff."

"Teaching it is a whole other matter," China pointed out. "But I suppose we could do it."

"W-We don't want to trouble you," Nianzu stammered, raising his hands defensively. "Really, please don't worry about us. We'll..."

"Too late, we've decided." Hong Kong stretched and reclined against the lockers. "Seriously, don't stress about it. We want to do this."

Without saying another word, the two Asian nations turned and headed back down the hall, leaving a trio of very confused teenagers behind.

"So how about it, Sensei? You on board?"

"I suppose, aru," China answered thoughtfully. "They are my citizens, after all. I guess I can't just ignore the situation." He glanced sideways at his brother. "Really, of all places for your heroic streak to flare up, it was here, huh?"

**xXx**

England choked on his tea. "_What _are you doing?"

It was evening now, and the two Asians had casually announced what their plans were. China waited for Denmark, who had come into the kitchen with a large bandage on his nose, to pass through before replying. The other nations were scattered throughout the house. Spain was making some sort of snack at the counter, England and Hong Kong were sitting at the kitchen table, Japan was in the other room reading a book for his English class, and the others were somewhere, China didn't care.

"We're teaching kids English." His amber eyes narrowed at the Brit dangerously. Whether they were in an unconfirmed relationship or not, England still managed to get on his nerves. "You think I can't do it, aru?"

"That's the thing," England answered. "Are you sure you can?"

"I speak English perfectly fine," Hong Kong said lazily, leaning on his elbow. "I like, learned it from you, remember? We can do it."

"I think the issue lies more with me in his mind, aru," China snorted. "I am four thousand years old, you know, I think I can teach a language, ar—" He stubbornly clamped down on the need to repeat his verbal tic as England shot him an exasperated look. "...What right do you have to judge me!"

"I'm not bloody judging!"

"You are! You don't think I can do it!"

England threw his arms in the air with a groan while Hong Kong looked amused. "Suppose you start teaching kids English. Tell me what kind of phrases you would teach them that would be remotely useful in everyday conversation."

China fumed and opened his mouth to retort, but was cut off by Japan speaking up from the other room, surprising them all.

"This is a pen."

There was a bet of silence, after which England turned bright red and China and Hong Kong burst into laughter.

**A/N:**

**I HAVE HAD THAT LAST SCENE PLANNED. FOR MONTHS.**

**I FINALLY GOT TO USE IT.**

**HAHAHAHAHA.**

**Right. Thanks for reading and please review, guys! I love you~**


	19. Chapter 19

"Lovi, I have an idea!"

Romano slapped his palm to his forehead. Conversations that began like this usually did not end well for him, especially when Spain was involved. He bit back a mild string of swear words and turned to face the Spaniard. Spain's green eyes were lit up excitedly and he bounced on the balls of his feet like a small child.

"What do you want?" Romano replied icily, slamming the door to his locker shut. The stupid thing had a broken hinge or something and required extra force to get it to close properly. Romano didn't really care; honestly, it gave him a venting outlet for when the day proved more frustrating than usual. It was the second-to-last class of the day, and he wanted to get it over with.

He still hadn't fully forgiven Spain for dragging him into school in the first place. It was bad enough that Veneziano was attending. Though, the potato bastard wasn't there, so that was a definite plus.

Spain himself ignored the irritated tone in his Italian's voice, far too used to it at this point, and instead waved a flier in front of the redhead's face. "It's a Spanish club!"

"I can read, bastardo! Why are you showing me this?"

"I want to join! You should join with me, Lovi~"

Romano stared. "No."

"Why?!"

"I hate this Spanish shit! Leave me out of it, Tomato Bastard!"

He didn't even have to turn around to know Spain was pouting at this point, giving him those pathetic puppy-eyes Romano really hated. Apparently he had learned them from America. Romano needed to stop letting those two hang out.

"Please, Lovi?"

"No."

"Pleeaaase, Lovi?"

"No!"

"There'll be food!"

"...what kind?"

"Spanish kind. Tomatoes. You like tomatoes, si? In fact, the event on the flier is advertising a formal dinner for the club to welcome new members. We could go and eat. That's all I'll drag you to, promise!"

Romano could feel his resolve cracking, and hated it. Worse, he knew Spain knew he was close to giving in. His face heated up, turning a bright shade of red.

"Fine. But I'm only going for the food, dammit!"

"_Gracias,_ Lovi!" Spain laughed, pulling the Italian into a tight hug. "It'll be fun, I promise!"

Romano hated when the Spanish nation won arguments.

**xXx**

"This is stupid."

"Oh stop it Romano, you look nice."

"I hate you."

Of all things, the Spanish Club dinner had to be a formal event. Romano groaned and loosened his tie, scowling as he did so. "Why do we have to dress like this? It's too high-class for this fuckbucket of a high school."

"América did mention something about our school being one of the most populous of his country, didn't he? I guess they have the funds for this sort of thing." Spain shrugged, and saw his meaningless conjecture had absolutely no effect on Romano's mood at all. Oh well, that was pretty typical, when he thought about it. thinking harder, Spain figured he didn't care if Romano was in a bad mood or not, he was just happy to have the redhead out and doing something with him. Wearing a suit, no less. Spain hadn't seen Romano looking so sharp since his mafia days.

Romano glanced sideways and caught the Spaniard looking at him as they walked into the school that night. The dinner thing was apparently in the cafeteria, of all places. For something so classy, one would think they would choose a better location. However, when they walked into the cafeteria, it was easy to see exactly why they picked that particular space. The whole room was packed.

Spain craned his neck, searching through the sea of finely-dressed people serving themselves enchiladas. "I spoke to the teacher a few days ago, but I can't see him."

"You already talked to the teacher? Why the hell would you do that?"

"Because he's the _Spanish _teacher, Lovi. And as Spain, I wanted to find out how many people took interest in my culture over here. Thus, _Espa__ñ__ol _Club." Spain smiled softly as Romano rolled his eyes. "He was excited that a native wanted to join. I even told him I might have a friend or two who was interested."

"You dragged my fucking name into this, didn't you?" Romano wanted to grab one of the plates and throw it at Spain's head. "I don't want to do this shit!"

His companion pouted. "Fine. I'll have to ask Veneziano if he wants to..."

"Don't you _dare!"_

"Ah well." Spain shrugged. "Let's just get food, alright? I'm sure Mr. Rodriguez will show up sooner or later."

"Fine," Romano snapped, stalking off towards the food line. Spain grinned and followed.

They would eventually get kicked out after an incident involving Romano flipping his shit and chasing Spain out the door screaming, "YOU ATE MY ENCHILADA!"

**xXx**

"After all that..."

Spain unwrapped his Taco Bell burrito and took a huge bite. It was past midnight, and once the two nations had returned back to the house, Romano had complained of being starving, stolen the keys to the Batmobile, grabbed Spain by the collar, and went off restaurant-hunting. Taco Bell was the best they could do at the late hour, as both of them refused to go to McDonald's or any place similar.

Romano glared at him. "Never eat my food, tomato bastard. Next time I will castrate you with a dull spoon."

Spain chuckled and reclined back in his seat. "Whatever you say, Lovi." He flicked a tater tot in the Italian's general direction. "Eat your potato babies, _por favor."_

With a grimace, Romano grabbed the small carton of tater tots and tossed them out the window. "You expect me to eat anything related to Herr Potato? You're dumber than I thought, cagna."

"That wasn't a nice thing to say."

"Shut the fuck up. I've had enough of you."

He ground his teeth and reached for the Batmobile keys, turning them in the ignition. The engine sputtered but didn't start. "Hm? What..." He tried again. Same results. On the third attempt, the car didn't even make a single noise.

"You've got to be shitting me."

"Huh? What's the matter, Lovi?"

"...we're fucking stranded in a fast-food parking lot in the middle of the night."

"...you serious, amigo?"

Romano was serious.

**A/N:**

** Pffft. **

**Filler. I needed to get this out of the way though, so I can get to some more fun stuff.**

**I didn't mean for it to turn out so...**_**shippy,**_** but...have at it, Spamano supporters. **

**I **_**will**_** apologize for Romano's language.**

** Right. I'm tired. I'm going to bed.**


	20. Chapter 20

"Idiots."

"We said we were sorry, dammit!"

"In all my years of living..."

"Lovi, I told you we shouldn't have called him..."

"Shut up! Did you think of a better idea?"

"Actually," Germany sighed as he drove Spain and Romano back to America's house, "You called Italy, and Italy called me. Honestly, what else were you expecting?"

Romano slumped down into his seat, sulking as he glared up into the front passenger side of the car, where his younger brother sat. Italy turned around with a mournful expression.

"Fratello, you called me in the middle of the night all angry and said to come get you, but I can't drive in America and you had the car anyway! What was I supposed to do?"

"Call anyone other than the potato bastard," the Southern Italian grumbled sullenly.

"I knew Germany was here though, and he always has a car! He always answers when I call, too."

Spain smiled at the very pale blush on Germany's face, and leaned forward to ask, "Mr. Germany, what are you doing here in the first place? It's definitely not like you to take vacations in America."

Slightly redder now, the German coughed and replied, "I'm here on business."

"How can you be, amigo? We aren't allowed..."

"He came to visit me!" Italy grinned and saluted. Germany slammed on the brakes, nearly sending his passengers tumbling through the bulletproof German windshield.

"We're here," he snapped harshly, gesturing erratically to the large house. "Go in quietly if you don't want to be yelled at by someone."

"We're already being yelled at by someone," Spain pointed out.

"Bastard, you've been yelling at us this whole time," Romano said at the same time.

A heavy sigh. "Just get out. I'll pick up America's ridiculous car from the shop tomorrow, alright? Thankfully the damage could be worse. I don't even know what you did to it."

"Gracias anyway, Mr. Germany," Spain sighed with relief. "I appreciate it."

"I appreciate it too, ve~" Italy smiled happily as he wrapped his arms around the large man's neck. Germany clenched his jaw before awkwardly returning the hug. The three nations climbed out of the car and silently crept into the house, taking care not to disturb anyone sleeping on the first floor.

Naturally, the first thing out of America's mouth as they left for school in the morning was, "Where'd the Batmobile go?"

**xXx**

Two days later, a flier came in the mail. America, who had been distraught over the Batmobile and hadn't spoken to Spain or Romano once during that time, instantly perked up when he saw it. in fact, it was such a big deal he called all of the other twenty nations into the living room for a miniature world meeting.

"This better be good, I was beating Aniki at mahjong," Korea said flatly, looking irritated. China, looking even more so snapped in reply, "You were not, aru!"

"Dudes, just chill out and listen to what I have to say." America rolled his eyes dramatically. "Take a look at this."

Finland stepped forward curiously to read the sheet of paper the tall blonde held. "It says something about a cultural fair, right? And some words in English I don't know."

"It actually says "Join us at Freedom High School's Annual Cultural Fair, celebrating various world cultures that come together to learn at our establishment," but you did pretty good."

Prussia blinked. "Our school has a name?"

"Yep!" America grinned proudly. "The mascot's an eagle, too."

"I find it hilariously ironic that we are attending the most patriotic school in this country when only one amongst our numbers is actually American," Romania scoffed with a sardonic smirk. "Seriously."

"What was the point of showing this to us?" Switzerland asked from the corner.

"Well, I want to go to it, obviously!" America flailed his arms as though upset that nobody understood his motives. "Come on, it'll be fun!"

"We already know a whole lot about each other though," Seychelles pointed out.

America looked prepared to throw a fit. The surrounding nations exchanged meaningful do-we-really-want-to-put-up-with-this glances with each other.

Well...

**xXx**

"Trust me, it'll be awesome." America flashed the whole group a thumbs-up as they walked into the school's gymnasium that following Saturday. "We'll just go in, look at the booths and shit, get some food, and go."

"Everything's about food for you, aru," China grumbled.

"Yeah like you're one to talk, crab man—hey, how about the weather?" America immediately switched gears when he saw China's narrowed eyes.

"Weather's nice," Denmark answered, smirking.

"It's cold!" Korea complained. "It's really cold! It looks like it's about to start snowing, da ze. Not fun."

"Yeah it does that sometimes," America shrugged. "Whatever. Let's just do our fun crap and get going."

"You sure sound enthusiastic," Norway deadpanned.

Not another word was said until they entered the gymnasium and saw for the first time what it was they were taking part in. The language clubs all had booths set up, and other students had presentations on countries they had an interest in. a good chunk of the world was represented. Near the far end of the gym, a stage and chairs were set up under a banner that read WORLD JEOPARDY in large pink letters.

"What is _that_?" Prussia laughed, pointing at the sign. "Let's go check it out!" The group went up to the stage and, noticing a sign set up for explanation, England read aloud, "World Jeopardy: a friendly game of knowledge about the history and cultures of countries around the world! It is meant to be a group activity, so sign up in groups and test your knowledge! There is a hundred dollar prize for the winners."

There was a beat of silence.

"Dudes," America whispered, "Let's sign up. We can split the prize money and everything, it'll be great."

"You realize that if we do that, all of us will get a total of four dollars and seventy-six cents, right?" England replied, doing the math. "That won't get us very far for anything."

"How about this?" Hungary began, "We'll split into two groups and compete. The winning group gets the money."

So that's what they did. Group one consisted of Finland, Denmark, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Vietnam, Canada, Italy, Romano, Spain, Korea, and Seychelles. The second group was China, England, America, Japan, Norway, Iceland, Prussia, Hungary, Romania, and Hong Kong. They signed up, and sat down to wait for the game to begin.

In about five minutes, it did. A woman stepped onto the stage, and the nations recognized her as Amelia Butler, the woman who had greeted them on their very first day. After adjusting the microphone, she spoke out to the fair attendees, "Thank you all for coming! We're going to start the game now, so if all the groups who signed up would take their seats please..."

She went on to explain how this would go. Eight groups had signed up. For the first round, two groups would be drawn at random and they would compete, followed by the next two groups, and so on. After the first round, the winners of each competition would move on to the next round, four groups being disqualified. Then the final two groups would move on to round three, where the winners would be determined.

"Alright guys," America whispered to his group, "Let's do this. We'll beat their stupid British asses into the ground."

"Excuse me?" England replied haughtily, raising his prominent eyebrows, "I'm on your team, you stupid git."

"...Oh. Damn."

"Moron."

China sighed. "This is going to be a long process, aru..."

Hong Kong nodded silently in agreement, sharing a resigned look with Iceland.

Canada's group was called up first, to compete with another full of students. America leaned back in his seat, getting comfortable, and said, "This should be good."

**A/N:**

** I WAS gonna make it one big long chapter, but then, I got lazy. Very lazy. I've spent the better part of my day writing updates and now I don't. WANT TO. Thus, cliffie. Dramatic cliffie. Sho magicul.**

** Okay, so, the chapter before last got SEVENTEEN REVIEWS. ALL of which were laughing over Japan's "This is a pen" line. Yesss. I'm happy everyone liked that. Can I get seventeen reviews on this chapter too? It'll make the jeopardy competition chapter come much quicker.**

** Thanks for reading, everyone! Till next time!**


	21. Chapter 21

The rounds were set up like this: The two groups competing would send up a member, and the two representatives would answer a set of five questions before switching out. There First up, against a group of students the nations had never seen, was Canada's group. There was a quick vote and Vietnam was sent up to the stage. The two contestants took their places and the round began as Amelia Butler pulled out a massive stack of question cards.

"Alright, there are a few categories," she said, "History, geography, important figures, food, and pop culture. Be warned, this game was designed to be very difficult. Are you two ready?"

Vietnam and the boy opposing her both nodded.

Amelia cleared her throat. "The category is geography. Which country shares borders with Denmark, Poland, and France?"

Vietnam's hand was in the air instantly as she answered, "Germany." The poor guy had a pretty sucky setup. He never stopped complaining about it, and with good reason.

"Question two: important figures. Who was the man who coined the term, "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?"

"John Locke and the proper phrase is, "Life, liberty, and property." England and America had bickered endlessly about that one. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw England nudge the younger blonde smugly.

The boy she was opposing was apparently one of the competitive types. He was sending her a narrow-eyed look and his hand was raised partway in preparation for the next question.

"Pop culture. Who wrote the Twilight saga?"

_Who wrote these questions?_ Vietnam wondered, not even bothering to answer that one and ignoring the victorious smirk the other boy sent her.

She, unsurprisingly, one the next two questions based on history and food. History because, well, every nation in the world could answer any question in that department, and nothing was more important to any Asian nation than food. It came with being raised by China.

The groups switched out members, and Italy took Vietnam's place. To everyone's shock, he managed to pass the round as well (though the question about Machiavelli probably helped). The round went on like that for a while, and finally the groups switched. This time, it was a student group vs. another student group, and the nations didn't pay any attention to that one. The same went for the two groups after that, and America's team was last.

He was brutally shot down when he insisted he go up as representative first, and Norway was sent in his place against a girl with frizzy brown hair that America knew he had seen somewhere. Oh. That was the Amy girl from his homeroom. Strange, one would think he'd have noticed her more. Unless she sat near Canada. America had this theory that his twin's invisibility was contagious.

Amy noticed Canada and sent him a small wave as she headed up to the stage, which he shyly returned. America turned around in his seat and raised his eyebrows at his brother, who blushed furiously and muttered a few French swear words.

The American girl smiled politely at Norway, who nodded in return, and Amelia began the round. "History. Which two countries fought in the Opium Wars?"

"England and China," both of them said, without missing a beat. Norway didn't really pay attention or care about a whole lot of the other nations, but he did know that was what made the relationship between England and China so rocky. They were still getting over it.

Amelia blinked, and decided to go with her better judgment and award Norway the point. "Okay, onwards with pop culture. From which country does the popular band SHINee hail from?"

Amy's hand shot into the air. "South Korea!" She giggled a little. "I'm really into that sort of thing, so these questions are super easy."

Norway shrugged. He didn't care either way.

**xXx**

Although Norway ended up losing his round due to lack of interest, the rest of his teammates made up for it in the long run. It came as no surprise when it was the two groups of nations who ended up facing off for the third and final round. The representatives sent up were fairly predictable as well: Denmark versus Iceland, Korea versus Hong Kong, Switzerland versus Prussia, Romano versus Romania, and the like. It finally came down to the final showdown.

America versus Canada.

America would never outwardly admit to being intimidated by his brother. Ever. But on the inside, well...that was another story. He still remembered the three-hour-long rant Canada had granted him that one time. He knew it would have gone much longer than three hours if England hadn't cut him off. In any case, America was not eager to be reduced to a sobbing, pathetic wreck at the end of this. On the other hand, his intense competitive streak was not something to be taken lightly, even if he knew Canada had the same quality. That one paintball game had proven that.

Canada looked innocent enough when the two brothers stepped onto the stage. "May the best man win," he said sweetly, and America could hear the hidden threat in his voice. Oh god, he was going to die.

Wait, wait, wait! What was he doing?! He was the hero, goddammit! To hell with losing! If Canada decided to flip his shit upon losing, then fine! America would just take off running! Strategic retreat, quitting while ahead, whatever. Right. He cracked his knuckles and met Canada's cold glare. "Hey, I have an idea," he said quietly, though loudly enough for the Canadian to hear, "whoever wins gets extra points for _the game."_

"Fine." Canada smirked. "You need all you can get. Too bad I'm going to win."

"Bring it on, bro."

"I plan to."

Canada was usually the nicest guy anyone could come across. But when set against America, holy hell did the demons emerge.

Completely unaware of the tension between the North American twins, Amelia smiled and raised her final stack of cards. "This is it, everyone! The final round! Let's get started."

She turned back to the stage. "First question is history. When did the French found Quebec and who was the first to sail down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico?"

"1608," Canada recited immediately before America could open his mouth. "And René-Robert Cavalier, for your second answer."

America frowned furiously. "Next question."

"Pop culture. Who is Miku Hatsune and where does she hail from?"

"She's Japanese and Crypton Future Media's most popular Vocaloid," America replied loudly in an instant, proud he actually knew that. Hey, hanging around Japan did have its perks. Well, perks outside of being able to do things that made the Asian embarrassed and turn an adorable shade of red—_Fuck!_

_ Get your shit together, you idiot!_ America shouted internally. _Stop thinking about your boyfriend! You just missed the next question and your stupid Mountie brother got it! good thing it was only historical figures. That means food and geography is next. I can nail those._

Canada's arms were crossed and he was looking at America with an infuriatingly superior expression. America clenched his fists.

"Geography," Amelia called out. "The Rhine river flows through which countries?"

Hell. The Rhine was in Europe, right?

"Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Germany, and the Netherlands," Canada said before America was even on the correct continent. He sounded almost bored.

Dammit! That was three to one! America was screwed, and he knew it, but one of his fatal flaws was never knowing when to give up. He was still convinced he was going to win.

"Final question is in the food category," Amelia read, "Which country is famous for their dish of hákarl, or rotted shark meat?"

"Iceland!" America hollered. Everyone knew that one!

In the audience, the Nordic himself buried his face in his hands.

**xXx**

"Hey!"

Canada glanced over his shoulder to see Amy hurrying over to him through the crowd. "Oh, hello. How are things?"

"Great!" she grinned. "You were pretty cool up there. Winning and all. Your brother looked like he was about to lose it."

"He looks like that a lot of the time but I appreciate the compliment," Canada replied mildly. "You did pretty well too, eh?"

"Oh please." Amy waved a hand dismissively. "My group got out in the second round. But you transfer kids did awesome! I guess having people from all around the world on your team makes a difference."

"I suppose so."

Someone called his name and Canada didn't bother looking to see who it was. He knew the purpose anyway. "I have to go now, we're all going home. I'll see you Monday, alright?"

"Sure!" Amy smiled. "I have to find my family anyway. See you later!"

With a final exuberant wave, she disappeared into the crowd.

Well. Canada had a cash prize in his pocket, the knowledge that he had beaten America at something, an actual friend who wasn't Cuba, and a few more points added onto his tally score for _the game_. Yep, it was a pretty good day.

**A/N:**

** Psst. **

** Hey guys.**

** *looks around suspiciously***

** Hey guys.**

** Can we get to two hundred reviews this chapter? I believe we can. Last chapter I got twenty-two reviews. TWENTY-TWO.**

** GUYS CALM DOWN.**

** Actually, don't, I love this. Even if I kind of really dislike how this chapter turned out.**

** Anyway, it's Halloween today! Happy Halloween! What's everyone doing? I'm crossdressing at school right now, hehe. I did it to see how many people it would throw off. Later though, I'm changing to go trick-or-treating as Marceline from Adventure Time because I am a child.**

** Okay, I've had a thought. Would you guys like a little special omake later in November dealing with the presidential election? Probably will be written after the election, because then we know the winner and all. OR I could write it before. I wouldn't take sides or anything, though I do favor a certain candidate a whole lot more than the other. But I wouldn't make that evident in this little omake thing. How about it? Would my American readers appreciate it? I know not all of my readers are American (I can name on off the top of my head who isn't) but I'm just asking in general because I think it would be fun.**

** Long A/N is long. I'm sure you all don't like listening to me ramble and I have to go to class now anyway. Thanks for reading and please review!**


	22. Chapter 22

In hindsight, it was really only a matter of time until America convinced England to agree to the band thing. That guy was too irritating for his own good, and the harassing finally ended with the Brit snapping, "Fine, I'll do it, _if_ you'll shut your arse and do your algebra homework!"

America had obliged only one of those two requests.

England sighed heavily as he looked down at the little slip of paper America had shoved into his hand. It held the names and numbers of all the band members. The names of the kids seemed fairly normal, at least. Cameron, Brian, Jeremy, and Jonathan. Could be worse. They could be going by aliases like, Dark'ness Dementia Way, or some such nonsense.

Well, it wasn't like he had anything better to do, and he really wanted America to shut his arse, so he ended up giving the lead singer a call.

It was...not like he expected. You see, despite feeling a certain amount of relief at the nice, normal names of the band members, England did not trust anyone America was associated with. Someone who picked "Fuck Yeah" to be their middle name was not to be trusted when it came to recommending acquaintances.

So, when he actually got around to talking to Cameron Johannsen, a senior at Freedom High School, England couldn't help but sigh with relief and say, "Bloody hell, you're sane. Thank fucking god."

"Sorry, what was that?" Cameron's voice sounded confused on the other line. "You said something just now?"

"Oh no, don't worry about it," England replied flippantly. "So what was it you were asking? I'm afraid I couldn't hear properly." In the room next to his, Korea was blasting Teen Top something-or-other.

"I was asking how long you've played bass. Alfred said a while, but didn't give specifics."

"No, I suppose he wouldn't," England muttered dryly. "About ten years, to answer."

"Okay, cool. How often are you available to practice?"

"Any day you need me, really. I don't do much after school hours."

"This is really great man, thanks a bunch. After Andrew dropped out, we were really in a tight spot. Lucky Alfred came along with your recommendation, huh?"

The Brit rolled his eyes. "Yes, I imagine it was a lifesaver."

Cameron laughed. "Yeah, for real. Anyway, I'll see you after school tomorrow?"

"Sounds good."

They hung up, and England sighed. He wasn't sure whether to be pleased at this development or not. In the end, he decided he was merely hungry and headed down to the kitchen where somebody was cooking dinner. Usually it was one of the Asians who made the food, as they were the best at such, but when he walked into the room England was surprised to see America standing at the counter and a few other nations sitting at the table looking put out and apprehensive.

"What is going on here?" he asked flatly, crossing his arms. America turned and grinned, his hands full of a massive ball of hamburger meat.

"Nothing much. I wanted to make burgers on the grill before the weather got too cold to do it anymore." The American just shrugged. "Got a problem?"

"Not particularly, it's just..." England glanced out the window, "you realize that it is currently beginning to rain, don't you?"

America looked and did a double take when he saw the droplets of rain beginning to fall. "Ah hell, I left the grill on! Why is this happening?!" With that, he dropped his mass of meat with a sickening _splat_ and dashed out to the back yard.

"He's been really out of it lately," Finland commented casually from where he sat reading the paper. "I wonder why that is?"

"Election," Canada said softly. "Election's coming up."

"Oh! I forgot. It's that time of year over here, isn't it?" Seychelles blinked, leaning against the doorframe. "I'm usually so cut off from that kind of thing."

"It's a big deal, yes," England sighed heavily. "It starts with him forgetting things, then depression. Heavy depression. You should have seen the election of 1824, which was by far the worst. In short, going for a couple days without a proper government is never fun for him."

"Like you're one to talk," China scoffed as he walked into the kitchen, grabbing a water bottle out of the refrigerator. "Stop giving America crap, aru, and recall your own 2010 election. I trust you haven't forgotten, aru?"

"Nobody has," Seychelles grinned, "That was terrible."

England buried his face in his hands. "Ugh, please refrain from that reminder in polite conversation. Thank you."

"I'm back!" America announced as he returned to the room, the fact that he had nearly run into the sliding glass door leading outside going conveniently unmentioned. "What were you all talking about?"

"Oh, nothing important," Finland replied lightly, folding up his newspaper. Information about the candidates emblazoned across the front page. "What are we doing about food?"

America shrugged. "I dunno. I can't grill with it raining."

"Not like we wanted you to," someone sounding suspiciously like Prussia and Romania in unison called from the other room.

Vietnam chose that moment to walk into the kitchen. "Stop doing silly things. Act your ages and clear out, I'll make dinner tonight."

The rest were happy to oblige; she seemed to be in a bad mood. Bad enough that England did not mention being in a band until he was leaving the next day.

**A/N:**

**Short, meaningless chapter. I have nothing to say for myself.**

**Also, who caught the My Immortal reference?**

**Thanks for reading and please review!**


	23. Election Omake

Election Day dawned cool and slightly overcast, reflecting the overall mood of the nations' house. The morning was oddly silent, only punctuated by the sound of a few birds chirping. Normally they all would be awake at this time, bustling around getting ready for the school day. In fact, the silence in the house was what woke them all up in the first place. It took a moment for everyone to remember.

Ah, yes. The _Day._

Now, the entire world had experiences with America's elections. However, they hadn't seen a campaign this dirty since 1824. The whole thing had really taken its toll on America's psyche, and that was a sight to behold. Thus, when a few of them crept into his room that morning, the image of him curled under his blankets in bed and whimpering pathetically was hardly surprising.

"Hey," Denmark said softly, prodding the lumpy mass that was America, "You getting your ass up?"

"No," America moaned, burrowing down further. "Leave me alone to die."

"Come on," Prussia chipped in, with an incredibly fake soothing voice, "Today's the big day, ja? Don't you wanna see what happens?"

"I said no, dude! I just want to fade from existence until I have a functioning government again."

"I thought you did have a functioning government," England said flatly, raising his eyebrows from where he stood, leaning against the door frame. "If anything, the election kicks your government into high gear. My last election? That is an example of lack of government."

America stuck his head out from under his pillow for the sole purpose of glaring at the Brit. "Gettin' real tired of your shit, England. Seriously."

Prussia and Denmark looked at each other and exchanged a nod. Sensing a conspiracy between the two, England stepped safely out of the way just as they simultaneously launched themselves onto America and began dragging him out of bed.

**xXx**

America planked onto the sofa in the living room. "Whyyyy."

"It was for your own good," Denmark said, brushing himself off. America had put up a spectacular fight. "Besides, England told us that was what we had to do in case you refused to get up."

"...Again, why?"

"Your country is deciding on who its new leader is going to be," England snapped. "I'm not going to let you skip out on watching. If it weren't for the fact that you are currently banned from the White House, I'd be forcing you in there right now."

America groaned. "This sucks. I don't want to."

"Too bad." England plopped down onto the sofa next to him and switched on the television. "Might as well get it over with."

"Dude, the election's not even... I mean, it's just random conjecture right now."

"You're watching."

"Fuck you."

**xXx**

Before long, the other nations (who had decided that without America it just wasn't worth it going to school) flocked into the living room and arranged themselves in various places. Most ended up on the floor, and there was a bit of complaining, but in the end everyone managed to settle in.

Romania brought in a bowl of popcorn and passed it around. "What's happening right now?"

"The news anchors are just talking," Spain answered, reclining back. "About the campaign."

America whined pathetically. "Make it stoooop."

**xXx **

"So the president has 60 electoral votes right now?"

"Yeah, and the opponent just lost his own state."

"If you dudes don't shut up right now, I'll rip your fucking hair out."

"Oooh, scary. Anyway, the president has 60 electoral votes but the opponent is winning the popular vote."

"Are we rooting for anyone in particular?"

"I don't know. America, who are we rooting for?"

"YOU CAN'T ASK ME THAT, YOU IDIOT. I DON'T FUCKING KNOW."

"Oh, right, it's split pretty evenly. He can't even decide for himself."

"Poor lamb."

"...I'm so done."

**xXx**

America collapsed, breathing heavily. "It's over. It's finally over. My government is back. Yes, finally."

"So _that_ guy won, huh?" Prussia asked, looking bored. "I don't know what all the hype was about."

"It really did just come down to those two states, didn't it?" Canada commented mildly.

"Whatever, man," the American sighed. "I'm just glad I don't have to report back to work for another few months."

Prussia snorted. "Just imagine if your boss hadn't got reelected, and the new guy came in. Then in a few months you just waltzed in there without warning."

"You have a strange and sick sense of humor. I don't even want to imagine that."

"Eh. Oh well. Hey, do you have any sauerkraut here?"

**A/N:**

** At this moment, nobody's won yet. The election is still going on. I can't wait to for all this to die down and end; because where I am we're getting bombarded with ads for senate campaigns too. Ugh.**

**Edit: And now it's the day after the election and looking back, this thing is fairly boring. Oh well. Sorry.**

** Anyway, this is pretty pointless. Yep.**

** Later, fools.**


	24. Chapter 23

Sooner or later, the nations had to realize that they didn't exactly plan the school game out completely. Sooner or later, there had to be a moment where it unanimously occurred to everyone what they had missed.

One Monday morning, that moment struck.

It was homeroom period, so the nations were all sitting in their respective classrooms, doing whatever they usually did at this time, when the morning announcements came on. The noise in the classrooms settled as the students tuned in to listen.

"Good morning, Freedom High!" Amelia Butler's voice rang through the empty halls. "Congratulations to the football team for winning the crosstown game on Sunday. Key Club will be meeting Thursday during lunch, so feel free to join them. And don't forget, parent-teacher conferences will be held this week from Wednesday to Friday. Conferences are mandatory. If you are an exchange student, your host family will represent you during the conferences."

Liechtenstein and Seychelles exchanged a horrified look. Canada spat out the water he was drinking. England facepalmed and muttered, "Bloody hell." China groaned and dropped his head onto his desk. All in all, the nations did not have a good reaction to the realization that none of them had a host family.

"And that's why you're stupid," Hong Kong told America flatly during lunch. The nations had long since begun to scatter during the lunch period, but right now they were all gathered on the roof in a state of panic.

America spluttered. "Wha—hey, you can't pin this all on me!"

"Sure we can," Hungary scoffed. "You're the one who planned out this game, and you clearly did not do a very thorough job."

"I'm inclined to agree," Switzerland added crossly. "Honestly, host families are a rather big deal when it comes to foreign exchange, right? How could you overlook that?"

"So it was one mistake! We can fix it!"

"How, exactly?"

Finland raised his hand. "Excuse me, everyone? I think I have an idea..."

**xXx**

America, Canada, England, and Seychelles gaped as France took the hand of the vice-principal's hand and kissed it delicately. The vice-principal, a stern yet fair woman named Emilia Greenhill, was the one through whom the parent-teacher conferences would be held. She held a file of all the exchange students' grades and other notes by their teachers.

Emilia looked down at the information in front of her, quickly pulling her hand away from France and subtlety wiping it on her skirt. She peered over her glasses, "You are Francis Bonnefoy, the host for Alfred Jones, Matthew Williams, Arthur Kirkland, and Michelle King?"

"_Oui_," France answered, winking suggestively. "_Mon cheri_, I am whoever you want me to be." England rubbed his eyes and resisted the urge to kick the man's ankle.

The woman ignored him however, and opened America's folder. "Let's get started. Alfred gets fairly good grades on homework, but does poorly on tests and has a tendency to be loud in class. All his teachers have noted this."

France waved a flippant hand. "That is just how he is. It's impossible to cure him."

"Hey!" America spoke up, indignant.

"He gets good grades on homework because he copies off Matthew and me," England muttered.

Emilia cleared her throat. "Now, Matthew is getting very good grades in most of his classes, but struggles in art and mathematics. Also, his teachers have noted that he shrinks back and never speaks up in class."

"Who?" France said blankly. England really did kick him at this. "Ah, oui. Well, there is not a whole lot I can do about that. 'E is invisible by nature, everyone agrees."

Face burning, Canada slumped down in his seat. This was too embarrassing; whose bright idea was it to bring in France? Oh, right. England called him in to watch him make a fool of himself. More power to the Brit then, though he seemed to be regretting the decision now.

Tuning back in, Canada heard Emilia say about England himself, "...Arthur also has a tendency to say rude things to his French teacher under his breath."

"I have good reasons," England said so quietly only Canada and Seychelles could hear him. Seychelles snickered while Canada covered his face.

France's eyes turned steely. "I imagine he would. Little Arthur has always been a callous child who does not pay the respect owed to his elders. You're better off kicking him out altogether, Madame."

Something in Emilia snapped then and she replied coldly, "Well, Michelle gets average grades in her classes and her teachers say she is a delightful, energetic student. Thank you for coming, Mr. Bonnefoy, please get out."

**xXx**

"No way. I hate you..."

"Calm down, Aniki."

"Don't tell me what to do, aru!"

"Korea, this is the worst joke you have ever pulled."

"Viet, that's mean, da ze!"

"It was rather tasteless, Korea-san."

"You too, Japan? Cold."

Korea held up his hands in defense as the other Asians glared. "It really was just a harmless joke, you guys...haha..."

China pointed furiously to Russia, who stood a few feet away, smiling pleasantly. "He is not harmless, aru! We told you to call Macau or Mongolia for this thing, aru!"

"Why do we trust you with anything?" Hong Kong narrowed his eyes at the Korean in a rare display of emotion. "When Sensei tells you specifically to _not call Russia_, you do not actually go and do it."

China patted Hong Kong's head. "This is why you're my favorite, aru."

Emilia Greenhill stepped out of her office. "Alright, you can come in now."

The Asians and Russia filed into the office, China sitting as far away from the large man as possible. Emilia opened her files.

"Ivan Braginski?"

"Yes," Russia replied politely. "What do you have to say to me?"

"Well, we'll start off with Yao. He's not doing so well in English—"

"School is pointless," Russia interrupted, still wearing his same smile, but now the menacing black aura everyone was familiar with was swirling around his bulky frame. "Everyone will become one with Mother Russia regardless of whether they pass or fail, da?"

China covered his face. "Oh dear God..."

**xXx**

Having heard the horror stories from Canada and the Asians about how the conferences were going so far, Hungary supposed she couldn't blame the vice principal when the woman eyed their "host parent" warily. However, Emilia didn't have much to worry about this time around, as Prussia and Italy had managed to convince Germany to come to their aid.

Emilia looked extremely relieved when the German formally introduced himself and allowed her to actually inform him of all his charges' misgivings unhindered.

"Gilbert's been reported for some mild misdemeanors multiple times, though he insists he was framed..."

"Hey, I was!

"Not a problem," Germany replied smoothly, "I'll make sure he stops."

"Thank you," Emilia said, just as affably. "Now, Elizabeta hasn't been giving anyone any trouble, but like a good deal of the other transfer students, she has had some problems in English. The same goes for Veneziano, who is also struggling in science and history."

"History? Really?" Germany raised his eyebrows and looked over at the Italian, who had the decency to look ashamed of himself.

"Now, Lovino..." Emilia sighed. "He's failing a good number of his classes and has a tendency to swear a few times too often."

Romano glared and crossed his arms, but otherwise kept his mouth shut.

"Yes, well, I'll talk to him about that," the blonde German said, gazing at Romano coolly.

"Thank you for being cooperative," Emilia said, standing up and shaking his hand.

"Not a problem."

**xXx**

Things went just as smoothly when Austria came in to deal with Romania, Spain, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. Romania was in that group because everyone figured it was a good idea to separate him and Hungary, to make sure they didn't attack each other in the middle of their conference or something. the content was pretty much the same, too; Vash and Lilli were each passing their classes well, Antonio and Vladimir had trouble with English, and Vladimir was in trouble for misdemeanors every so often. Nothing unusual.

The same went for when Sweden came in to represent the Nordics, though there was a little more violence in that meeting. Mainly in the form of people slapping an idiot Dane upside the head for going on about illegal pineapples and some such nonsense.

All in all, parent-teacher conferences were an experience that nobody wanted to repeat, though they knew they would have to in the spring. It was just too stressful. One thing was for certain, though; China would make sure Russia was not allowed in the school again.

**A/N:**

**We actually don't have parent-teacher conferences at my school, hehe. I haven't had something like that since, like, fifth grade. Montana, y u so ghetto? Oh well, it's not like I have the best grades ever, so maybe it's a good thing that they aren't calling my mom in to look at them.**

**Thank you for reading and please review!**


	25. Chapter 24

"I need your help."

Romania stared at Hong Kong incredulously, hardly believing his ears. "Sorry, what?"

"I said I need your help." The Chinese nation stared at him flatly, as though he hadn't just uttered the words that would blow the minds of the entire rest of the world.

Romania just blinked. "I didn't know those words were in you vocabulary. May I ask why me, specifically?"

Hong Kong's breath blew out in a rush, sending his bangs flying upwards. "You have experience that I need."

"Such with?"

"Pranking."

There was a beat of silence while Romania considered the offer. "Alright, I'm in. Who are we pranking? If it's Hungary I'm backing out, I spend too much time on her."

"It's not Hungary," Hong Kong replied. "Come on, I'll tell you while we walk."

Romania followed leisurely behind as the younger nation, arms swinging casually at his side. "I assume we are cutting class today, then?"

"You assume correctly."

"Excellent. So what exactly are we doing?"

Hong Kong was quiet for a moment. "Even though Sensei and I have been teaching those Chinese kids English, their situation hasn't really gotten better."

"Oh, yeah," Romania replied, "I remember you talking about that with England. 'This is a pen,' and all that."

The Chinese nodded. "Right. So, due to my irritation and own personal lack of patience, I'm taking a more direct method when it comes to dealing with the bullies. My plan is to, like, put itching powder in their gym clothes."

"Is that it?" Romania pulled a disappointed face.

"Well, we can't get away with anything big here at school, and we're not going to go stalking through town searching for their homes. We have standards."

"We have standards? You—_I _have standards?"

The Romanian fell silent and shrugged at the look Hong Kong sent him. The two hurried through the halls, ducking out of sight whenever they passed open classrooms or saw teachers approaching. At one point they thought they saw the extremely unpleasant principal Dr. Hubbard (the two had honestly forgotten about him entirely) coming their way, but it turned out to only be an uncanny doppelganger.

"Wait, wait," Romania said suddenly, halting in his tracks. "Where exactly are you taking me? The direction we're going looks like—"

"The locker rooms," Hong Kong answered. "I told you, we're putting itching powder in their gym clothes."

"Yeah, but...we're going to the girls' locker room too?"

"Yes."

Romania turned an interesting shade of grey. "You gotta be kidding me."

"I'm not," the dark-haired boy replied. "It's the middle of class, there won't be any girls in there, you know."

"Any girls in where?"

The two nations jumped violently and spun around at the sound of a familiar voice.

"O-Oh," Hong Kong tried to say casually, his voice raising several octaves despite his attempts to remain stoic, "Hey there, Sensei."

China narrowed his amber eyes and stared at the duo. "You two are an interesting pair, aru. What are you doing out of class?"

The two younger boys exchanged a guilty glance. "Well..."

**xXx**

"Thank me, aru," China told them irritably as he led the way down the hall, keeping a sharp eye out for teachers or renegade hall monitors. "I don't usually go along with this sort of thing, you know."

"We know," Romania breathed back. "Thanks, I guess."

"It's weird you're actually agreeing with what we're doing," Hong Kong told his brother, who shrugged.

"It's like you said, aru. Our methods aren't exactly working. While I do not believe this will make a much bigger difference in the long run, it is good to let the bullies know that there are people around willing to fight back, aru."

"Sensei's in a warlike state of mind," Hong Kong commented quietly, though his eyes gleamed with mischief and excitement.

"Damn right I am," the elder nation growled. "Now, let's get this over with, aru..."

"The girls' locker room? Romania groaned.

Hong Kong and China nodded in affirmation. "The girls' locker room."

**xXx**

Romania really couldn't help it. he was a double-crosser. What the hell, it was fun, and that was the only thing he cared about.

China and Hong Kong were less amused.

It hadn't been that bad, had it?

So yeah, maybe after they had gotten done doing their self-proclaimed "duty," Romania had been a little peeved about the girls' locker room. Maybe, just maybe, he'd pinned a note saying, "With love from China" to a pair of lingerie. Maybe.

They would never catch him alive.

They couldn't prove anything, anyway.

China and Hong Kong sure weren't happy about it after their three-hour detention the next day, thought. Not by a long shot.

America, England, and Korea were in hysterics by the time the story had been told.

That was what made it worth it.

Two black eyes was totally worth it.

**A/N:**

**I haven't updated in like, forever.**

**It's a short and boring chapter.**

**I have a reason.**

**If you have me on your alert list, you may have noticed the influx of new story notifications from me flooding your inbox. This is because I have recently gotten obsessed with a certain something.**

**Rise of the Guardians.**

**That little asshole Jack Frost and his fucking beautiful face won't get out of my life.**

**I have literally been unable to write anything but RotG stories for the past few days. I saw that fucking movie four times and it's a fucking disease that I can't get rid of but I'm perfectly fine with having it. However, it is distracting me from updating stories like this. :/ So, fair warning, updates may be slower as long as I have the RotG bug.**

**Sorry.**

**Anyway, thanks for reading and please review.**


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